By Vanessa Cort

SHIRLEY Singh is a woman with a warm disposition and decades-long experience of dealing with fabrics, selling clothing and making tasty snacks. We became friends when I went to live with two of my sons and their wives in Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara.

In fact, Shirley reminded me that we met before that, when I would pass her home to visit my sons. The tantalising smell of the home-made snacks displayed in a glass case in front of her home seemed to beckon me and one day I stopped to buy.

I have always had a love for ‘baiganee’ – made with slices of eggplant ( boulanger), dipped in a spicy batter and fried. So when I spotted it in the glass case, along with potato, cassava balls and egg balls, pholourie, fish and chicken cakes, I bought both the baiganee and a portion of pholourie, fully intending to eat them when I got home.

I never made it back home with those snacks. Still warm because they had been freshly prepared, the aroma from these favourites in Guyanese ‘road food’ made me delve into them as soon as I got to my sons’ home. That early morning stop marked the beginning of what has become a deep friendship, cemented when I discovered that Shirley also sold clothing, shipped from the US, in a home boutique specially built for that purpose.

I soon became — and still am — a regular shopper, spending spare time looking through racks of clothing and selecting items, all reasonably priced, for both casual and formal occasions. Shirley’s boutique has it all — men and women’s clothing, children’s outfits, handbags, shoes and sneakers, sandals and even costume jewellery. What astonished me was her ability to find particular items among the racks and heaps of folded clothing filling practically the entire floor space.

She very quickly learned my taste in fashion and would beckon me if she saw me on the verandah of our house a ‘stone’s throw’ away from hers. She might also call out to me if she saw me passing, ” Must come, I got somethings I think you would like.”

And sure enough, when I got the chance to visit her, I would not be disappointed. I usually liked everything she chose for me and without hesitation would begin making my purchases by asking, “How much?”

With a smile she would start calculating the prices, letting me know, “You don’t have to give me all the money now, take them home and try them on and see how they fit.” Sometimes I left no cash, but returned later to pay, either the full sum or a portion, making arrangements to return at a later date with the balance.
One day, as we chatted, I asked Shirley how she got into the clothing and snack business.

“I started with three pieces, then six and up, about 15 years ago,” she told me. Then, when the clothing business slowed down, she decided to start making ‘finger foods.’ “The profit from the finger foods I turned over and invested in the business.”

With the accumulated cash she extended her business, shopping locally from people bringing clothing from the US and Canada. As her business grew, she was able to travel and bring in her own clothing. But she continued making her snacks, saying, “I enjoy it.”

Over the years her snack business has also grown, allowing her to buy a steel-framed tent, which she is in the process of erecting outside her home. Having just returned from the US, where she bought and posted several barrels of clothing, Shirley Singh is about to show that her entrepreneurial ability is paying dividends.

I wish her continued success and have already paid her several visits, making purchases and laughingly bemoaning the fact that, ” It looks like I’ll be spending all my money here!”