WHEN Rosaline Seepersaud was just 17 years old, she fell in love with her husband who was just a few years her senior. The young couple got married and moved into the village of Vriesland. They sought to have a place to raise a family and call home. It has been almost 50 years since she has called the community home and Rosaline says she has seen the community evolve while her life, as life often does, went through major shifts, ups and downs.

Rosaline says that she has seen the village of Vriesland go from a historical Dutch plantation to a thriving sugar estate to becoming the beautiful, captivating suburban neighbourhood it is today. Vriesland is among the oldest villages on the west bank of the Demerara River and is considerably small compared to some of its neighbouring communities. Vriesland covers a stretch of land half a mile long, and no more than 500 residents call the village home.

But as modest as it is today, the village has come a long way. According to Rosaline, the village of Vriesland was once a few homes surrounded by trees and had vast cane fields to the west of the village. “Vriesland had very few houses,” Rosaline stated. “Then gradually, people began to take up land and a few families moved in,” she shared. And Rosaline and her husband were among the first to call Vriesland home.

Vriesland was once a part of the Wales Sugar Estate which provided jobs for many men at that time. Rosaline explained that, “My husband was working at Wales Estate; he worked there for a long time. Then he came off and he became a security guard.” She further stated, ” This was a plantation. And there was an airport where the estate planes used to land to spray the fields.” Rosaline described her early years living in Vriesland as more simple, peaceful and serene, despite its challenges.

But Rosaline did face her fair share of challenges. Rosaline gave birth to five children, three of whom are girls and the remaining siblings are boys. Raising one child is a task difficult enough, but five, with the resources she had, was a new challenge entirely. And the abuse she said she suffered at the hands of her husband made it almost impossible. “It wasn’t a big family, but still,” Rosaline stated. “I used to have it hard. But worked hard to mind my children, to make them happy.” Rosaline committed to several jobs throughout her life to provide for her family.

Rosaline described her husband as having an abusive streak. She told of how, on occasions too numerous to recall, he would physically abuse her. ” One Friday, he said he wanted a pair of boots. I told him he couldn’t get it. One lash, he gave me and broke my hand. Right in the scheme here,” she recalled.

Rosaline’s way of dealing with it and her outlook on the situation was largely influenced by her mother and perhaps the traditions and overall norms of the time. “I never left him,” Rosaline said.”My mother would tell me that I shouldn’t leave him and take him back. She would tell me to bear it.”

On several occasions, Rosaline would leave her husband and her home in Vriesland to go to Good Intent where her mother lives, and where she was born. She shared that, “I used to just go away. I would move out, but I wouldn’t leave my children.” Rosaline would leave her husband for a short while, only to return some time later. “At that time, we had donkey carts. Me and my five children would jump on a donkey cart and go to my mother’s house in Good Intent.”

Rosaline’s husband died some years ago, and today, she lives a peaceful life, one in which she spends most of her time with her friends and family while reminiscing on her past. As a mother and woman who went through what she did, she said that despite having survived what she has, she never ran. When asked about her motivation and what inspired her to persevere, she stated that come what may, she fought and faced the trials life threw at her. “God wouldn’t give you more than what you can bear,” she said.