ADEELA Husman has called the village of Maida home for just over 21 years. The 36-year-old mother of four came to the community as a young bride. Adeela has led a simple life for the most part, but even the seemingly simplest of lives are filled with twists and turns.

Adeela was led to the community of Maida when she was 15. Adeela originally came from the other side of the Berbice River, in Canje, where her family faced tight financial constraints. The situation was so difficult that Adeela summed up her time in Canje into a single word: Poor. She explained that although the community was a lovely place to live in, the challenges faced by the family were the hallmarks of her childhood. “It was a nice place, yes, in Canje, but it was still hard,”she said.

She was the youngest of her family’s four siblings, having two older sisters and one younger brother. The family faced hard times after her father and mother separated, and the children became her mother’s sole responsibility. It was a job she undertook wholly, but Adeela’s family struggled to make ends meet. “My father and mother separated. At the time, my mother alone used to work, and she had to support us,” Adeela explained. As many challenges as her early life presented her, the hurdles that would be thrown at her in the following years were higher and bigger uphill climbs.

MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD
The courtship process is different for every couple. Some people get to know each other for months and even years before getting married. Adeela describes the time before she married her husband as somewhat of a blur, and one that lasted no more than two months. As she fondly recalled, “Somebody saw my husband and said he was a good boy. We did not know each other for long; only for about two months. Then we got married.”

The newlyweds moved to the village of Maida, which is where Adeela’s husband was raised. After tying the knot, the young couple embarked on their next venture, which was beginning a family. However, the start of a new family would be a life-changing event for the new bride. Although now a mother of four, Adeela faced challenges with the birth of her first child. Her first daughter was born with aplastic amenia, a rare type of bone cancer. The new bride and mother was presented with a challenge that was unimaginable to many.

The child’s illness put an immense strain on the family, both financially and emotionally. Adeela’s daughter needed countless doctor’s visits and consultations, which meant many hours spent in hospitals around Guyana, and lots of money spent on doctors, even beyond Guyana. “We went to Trinidad to do some bone marrow transplants. And she was supposed to go to Miami, but we did not have the money to go,” she recalled. The baby eventually passed away several months later. This, Adeela says, is something that will be remembered by her family, as well as the relatives of both her and her husband’s family.

SETTLING DOWN IN MAIDA
Today, Adeela has four daughters, ranging in age from a teenager to a baby she recently gave birth to. In the two decades Adeela has been in Maida, the community has seen some changes. The village is now equipped with electricity and running water, conveniences that were not always present. The simplicity and farming nature of the village are also captivating to Adeela. She describes how finding farmland is difficult in some places, but in Maida, trees and the fruits they bear everywhere. “Here, you can plant anything, and you can ask your neighbour for anything,” she said.

Adeela admits that she keeps mostly to herself, only talking to a few neighbours. She also shared that she enjoys life in Maida so much that travelling to Georgetown is no longer necessary. In fact, she has not been to Georgetown in years. These days, she spends most of her time at home, and ventures out to Rose Hall if she needs anything. While the easygoing life lived by Adeela and many of her neighbours may seem uneventful, Adeela says it is exciting enough for her. She expressed that she has no desire to live in Georgetown, or anywhere else for that matter. “Everything is right here in Maida,” she said.