Celebrating Jerome's Achievements

Dr. Jerome and I

This was quite a hectic but enjoyable weekend. To begin with, my godson Jerome who is the only son of my late best friend Hilma, recently achieved his goal of becoming a medical doctor and he is presently doing his internship at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Hilma died in 2009 but she had spent many pleasant days on my  veranda and one of her favourite topics had been the giant party she would host for Jerome when he graduated.

 Since she did not live long enough to see him achieve his goal, I as godmother felt obliged and it was as pleasure to host a little party with mine and Hilma's friends to celebrate the occasion.

 As Jerome is busy and is often on duty on weekends, I had to ask him to choose the date. I also asked that he choose a date before the 20th August, as that is when my grandson Shadrach was due to return to New york and I wanted all who had not seen him since he was a little kid to see what a wonderful young man he had become.

Thor with baby Shadrach

Would you believe the date he chose was the 13th August! Whats so great about that date you may ask? Well to begin with, that's Fidel Castro's birthday, but the greater significance for me is that 40 years ago at 3 pm, my late, only son Thor was born. As fate would have it, he was only with us for 24 years but had it not been for him there would be no Shadrach, my grandson. Marsha, Jerome's sister said it was a good omen for Jerome to have chosen that date without even knowing the significance.

Shadrach (front) l-r Jerome, Joan, father Ramsay

It certainly turned out to be an excellent night, great food, lots of drinks and good friends all in one place to celebrate this young man keeping him eyes on the prize and accomplishing his dream despite the tragedy of losing his mother, with whom he was very close, during what was a critical time for him.

In the meantime Fun and Thrills, my riding group,  had planned a ride to Hollywell on Sunday 14th and since that area is a favourite of mine, I made sure to set my alarm clock so as not to miss it.

I did not ride with the main group but left early with Charles and Nicky. The ride up to Cafe Blue was reasonably easy but after we stopped there to have a drink, my muscles started to complain  and I could sympathise with them, for after all, I had already done 7 miles of solid uphill riding. Now normally, as I get tired, I jump into a support vehicle. But each time as I sought to ease the stress to my body, Charles gave me a pep talk so he and I continued struggling up together, for super fit Nicky had left us long before then.

Stefan and Nicky were among the first to arrive

 Soon Dennis Chung  flew past us then so did Andrew. After much pain and suffering, we made it up to Newcastle where we found Chris with the support vehicle and quickly jumped into the juices we had carried up in a cooler. At that point Charles, Andrew and I decided to take the easy way up by driving the rest of the way to Hollywell.


When the rest of the riders (about 15 persons) arrived, Michael drove up with them along with our Maryland " "chef," Coy and breakfast. What a wonderful sight!

After a delicious breakfast, the majority or riders sped off but as I was feeling quite tired, cold and sore, I opted to drive down with Chris, accompanied by Charles and Andrew. 

When I stopped by a neighbour on the way home, she commented how tired and bedraggled I looked. And she was perfectly correct for after the party on Saturday night, I only had about four hours of sleep and I was really pooped.

So you can guess where I headed to right after I arrived home!


For more photographs, see;  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150340990661823.393930.763366822&type=1