Growing Up - Part I

My mother came from a  large family, being the youngest of them all, by the time her youngest child was seven or so, several of her nephews and nieces had grown to adulthood and had children. However there were a few of the siblings who had children of our age and like our family had children of varying shapes and sizes.

When I was about six or seven, I was especially happy when we received clothes from one of our aunts who had four girl children in her house. While her youngest daughter was the age of my second oldest sister, with both of them being small sized, there was sufficient clothes to come to me, not that they outgrew them, however living in a small house, to receive clothes meant that you had to give up some, hence being the last girl of the last girl child there were lots of older cousins to like and smile at, as we were rich in love.

By the time teenage years hit, the country was going through some hard times as a result of the recession. That meant more than ever spending had to be scrutinized.

Shortly after confirmation, (we were Catholics) in the parish where we lived, we were allowed to join the Junior Society of St. Vincent de Paul,, the Youth Group and the Junior Legion of Mary. This was an opportunity to go out more frequently as there were;

• Meetings to pray the Rosary
• Meetings of the Youth Group  on a Saturday afternoon, or 
• Visits to the older citizens  of the parish on a Sunday morning after Mass, tsee how they were doing, pray with them as part of the SVP ,  or
• Once a month on a Saturday  to visit the Lady Hochoy Home  in Cocorite.

See the links for further details. http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,138285.html; https://sta.uwi.edu/disabilitystudies/documents/Project-SocialDisabilityStudies-LadyHochoy.pdf