– Enjoying their retirement after many years of hard work

HARDAI Ramnarine called ‘Aunty Leila’ is 73 years old and is one of the elders in Gangaram Settlement, East Canje, Berbice, who is still very active and keeps a kitchen garden of greens and fruits, that she sells to earn.

This pleasant elder, who was at the time visiting her grand-daughter a few houses away in her street when the team met her, related that she had brought creole eggs as a gift for the relative.

She had spent some time to have a chat and was also enjoying the cool countryside breeze that day.

Ramnarine told the Pepperpot Magazine that she relocated to Gangaram Settlement in 1962 from New Dam, right in Canje.

She was just 11 years old when her parents and two siblings moved, since the lands were being utilised for sugarcane cultivation by the state.

The elder recalled when she became of age, got married and went to Corentyne to live with her new family, but some years later returned to Gangaram.

Hardai added that after her husband died 10 years ago, she had to fend for herself and she always had a love for gardening and she started to plant her entire yard, even in the sidewalk in front of her home.

“I could not depend on anyone to help me, so I planted greens and the eggs from the chickens I would sell in the village and get a ‘small-piece,’ you know, to offset my expenses,” she said.

All her life, she was self-employed and was not about to go and work for people, so she also began sewing from home on a sewing machine she had bought when she was much younger.

That sewing machine, the old-fashioned one with the pedal, is still in good working condition and to date, she uses it to make curtains and other things for the home and do a few alterations for the relatives.

Back in the days, Hardai was a seamstress and she earned from it, working from the comfort of her home.

“At age 15 years old, I went to sewing classes and at 16, I mastered the art of sewing and became a seamstress and used my father’s sewing machine to make a lot of things,” she said.

She related that she bought her own sewing machine two years after marriage, the same one she still has.

At 73 years old, Hardai does her own cooking, chores and would spend a lot of time gardening in her yard, but lost most of her cultivation last year when the village was flooded.

She stated that she was, however, disappointed that she did not benefit from the government’s cash-grant relief and now is in the process of re-planting.

Hardai reported that only five of her 23 creole fowls survived the flood and she would have appreciated assistance following her losses.

She now has some tomatoes, boulangers, peppers, calaloo and ochro plants.

These days, she is taking things easy and is willing to re-plant her yard, but has to source seedlings and prepare some beds for cultivation.

Hardai has a very clean yard and well kept home with swings that are decorated with floral prints, fabrics as covering and lovely flowers all over the front of her house.

Aunty Irene
The team also managed to talk to another elder in the village, Gomti Tajram called ‘Aunty Irene’, who resides with her son and daughter-in-law.

The 77-year-old was a “backdam” worker attached to the sugar estate, who worked with the estate for 25 years, throwing manure and cutting weed in the canefields.

She began residing in Gangaram Settlement in 1962, and she is the mother of five.

Her husband passed away in 1981, two years before she started working at the sugar estate at Rose Hall, East Canje.

“I am here living with my son and his family and as you can see, I am doing okay except for some issues with my hearing. I would go to the diabetic clinic, but I am mostly indoors these days,” she said.

Aunty Irene is a very spritely woman who reported that life has been good to her and today, she is enjoying her retirement and pension.

“I work hard, you know, did ‘backdam’ work like any man, but I did what I had to [do to] give my family a good life,” she said.