A Cove and John man talks about his journey of growing and creating

MOST days, you could find John Clowse watering his garden and tending to his beautiful array of flowering plants. Moreover, up until a few years ago, John could be found bringing pieces of wood to life through his amazing fine art sculptures. The 75-year-old has been retired for more than two decades. Having lived a truly enriching life full of travel and lessons, John lives his life at a slower pace these days. However, that is not to say that life is bad. To John, life after retirement is just as important as one’s youth. It is the time when you can exercise all that you have learned and become the person you have always wanted to be.

The community of Cove and John is well known along the East Coast. With its unique name and mysterious roots, the community has given rise to countless businesses, creative endeavours, and notable people. John Clowse and his wife are among the very first people to settle in the backlands of the village, making it their home for the past two decades. According to John, the village’s people are a culmination of people from various walks of life. “Many of them came from surrounding villages, like Victoria Village, and some from Paradise, ” he stated during his talk with us.

People of Cove and John have varying dynamic experiences and a shared appreciation for each other. The village was originally home to a population of Indo-Guyanese. Over time, and due to various circumstances, Afro-Guyanese from surrounding areas have also settled in the community.

John was born and raised in the captivating community of Canje in the county of Berbice. His upbringing, although humble, was colourful and filled with experiences that crafted his love for agriculture. “My grandfather worked on Rose Hall Sugar Estate as a shovel man. They called him Shovel Gang. My grandmother was a baker and gardener, backyard gardener, and florist. They loved flowers and planting and so on. And my mother was a seamstress, gardener, homemaker, and so on. And we started schooling in Cumberland.”

After sharing more than five decades as a pair, John and his wife Carmen are just as in love as the day they met. He reminisced about his youth and how their shared love for agriculture and art brought them together. “My wife grew up in Pomeroon. Her father was exclusively a farmer. There’s no other means of employment or occupation in the Pomeroon River. Except you’re either farming, or you have a farm, or you’re out of there. There’s no other means of livelihood. And everybody is self-sufficient in Pomeroon. Everybody has a farm. Everybody does farming. Everybody depends and lives off of their farm.”

Together, the two lead an enriching and captivating life. The husband and wife duo travelled across Guyana, experiencing the hinterlands and savannahs. Through their adventures, John was inspired. After returning and settling in Cove and John, John undertook the next venture in his life: art. For many years, John has created amazing fine art pieces. His wood sculptures were inspired by everything from the orchids of the Roraima foothills to Bob Marley and John’s love for his wife. His home resembles an art gallery, with wooden sculptures and paintings covering the walls. Today, John has redirected his energies and is more dedicated to his garden. Art, however, is still a big part of him, and although he says he has created everything he was inspired to create, John believes that art still lives within many of us.

John and his wife have taken to the next stage of his life, retirement. An aspect of life that is oftentimes not discussed, John has no fears about the slower stage of his life. He sees this time as a rebirth, a chance to be all that you could not be in youth. As he shares, “The better part of your life is after you’re retired. When you can make use of the skills, talents, and abilities that you have… nobody can take them away from you. After you work, you give up your designation because you don’t have to have a designation and a title anymore. You have to have just the confidence in yourself to live on what you have acquired over the years. So, we live, my wife and I. Both of us, we rear layer birds. We sell eggs. In fact, in this village, we must be the only people who are.”

After living a life as vibrant and exciting as John and his wife have, a life filled with adventure and experiences that have given rise to creation, many may argue that slowing down means a halt. But John disagrees. He describes this as the best time in his life and sees it as just a stop before the next endeavour. As he shares, “When you reach 55, you’re at the zenith of your health. You’re just in the middle, just past the middle. You’re too old to be young and too young to be old. But you still have a lot of life. A lot of what is in you is still coming out. A lot of your life, a lot of what you can do is still coming out. You’re still becoming better at some of the things you used to do on the job. And you still find a lot more meaning from those things when you give them up. Because you see the benefit, you see what you can do. And you sometimes surprise yourself by what you can do. But you have to have a partnership, a support-based system in your life.”