By Vishani Ragobeer

AS Mother’s Day is observed worldwide today, many can attest to the fundamental role mothers play in shaping families and the wider society. At the Bourda market, in Georgetown, where the vendors are predominantly female, there are some mothers who stand out.

Debra Payne is one such woman. She sells all kinds of ‘bush medicines’ and products just outside of the market, and you couldn’t miss her boisterous persona even if you tried.

She’s been selling here for the past 30 years, and this is the sole means of employment that the single parent has been used to raise her 10 children, eight of whom are still alive.

“I am mother and father for all of my kids,” Payne said, while highlighting that in so doing she has been coping with the challenge of everyday living.

“It is about nine of us selling the same thing (bush medicine), and it’s not easy but at the end of the day you’re still able to provide a living for yourself,” she said. Her motivation to keep going each day is he children, and it helps that she just loves the haggling of the market life.

For Mother’s Day, she’s probably going to be plying her trade at the market but of course, her children would force her to at least spend some time relaxing.

“They would give me gifts and we cook and buy stuff and enjoy the day,” she said. Payne even joked that each year her children would attempt to surprise her, but each year without fail they would spoil the surprise by telling her beforehand.

No special plans
Hidden away inside the market- at a stall known as ‘Bird’- is Roxanne Edwards, also single parent. She works as a seamstress, seven days a week, from 07:00 hours to 17:00 hours.

“I have four children going to school- the smallest is aged four years and the eldest is 14,” she shared, while relating that she has been working as a seamstress for the past 15 years.

Edwards only became a single-parent two years ago, but this profession is what she used to support herself and her family over the years. Now, as the breadwinner of the household, this is the main source of income.

For her, the job isn’t challenging at all. “It’s something I like so I don’t see it as a problem,” she said.

For Mother’s Day, she doesn’t have any special plans either– since her children are still young. What she does intend on doing, however, is coming to work and sew.

Second generation
Aside from the vendors in the markets, you would also find other mothers coming there to shop for the household.

Yvonne (only name given) was rushing through the market with two of her four grandchildren. She had taken them to the market to do some shopping, but the mischievous little ones got a bit frisky and caused her to leave some of the items she bought at the market stall.

‘Granny’ joked, “They’re two little devils that have me walking all over the market… But they’re good though.”

Granny Yvonne shared that she usually takes care of the grandchildren during the week because she helps with taking them to school. It’s just like what she would’ve done for her own two sons where they were much younger.

“As, a mother sometimes it has its little ups and downs, but all-in-all it’s been good for me,” Yvonne said reflecting on her years as a mother, and now a grandmother.

For her, motherhood was a time for learning the best ways of taking care of her children, but now with her grandchildren, she has- more or less- gotten a hang of it. Maybe it’s just keeping up with the high-energy little ones at her age is something new to her.