Entertainment with a Personal Touch
Memories of My Father
The Birthday Party (A Very Colorful Musical)
Father: Celebrating his 50th birthday party.
Lena: Very excited to see the fancily decorated fruit cake, made by Mr. Joseph Newton, best cake maker in Marigot…. I kept thinking how delicious it must taste.
Father: Invited his usual friends to the party.
Lena: Must leave to sleep with adopted grandmother.
Father: Drinks and food prepared and ready for the evening’s party.
Lena: Admiring cake, wonders if there’ll be any left, when I return home next day.
Father: Out of the house at the moment, probably collecting last minute items.
Lena: Time to leave. Looks at the cake, cuts a slice, then turns the cake around.
Father: Guests arrive for birthday party.
Lena: Enjoys eating cake, while walking to grandmother’s house.
Father: Having too much fun to notice a slice of his birthday cake is missing.
Lena: Never heard about the cake and don’t remember telling anyone about it until I was grown.
Father: Never missed celebrating his birthday.
Lena: Twenty years later, flew to Dominica, on my father’s birthday, with a cake, for a surprise visit.
Father: Sat playing with his island friends.
Lena: I came all the way here to personally present you with your birthday gift.
Father: Very surprise, but his heart was strong enough to withstand the surprise.
Lena: Prepared food and drinks for the birthday party.
Father: Enjoyed his birthday party, drank and danced while having a great time, then he fell into bed.
Lena: After three days on the island, I returned to the USA.
Father: Continues celebrating his other birthdays while living in Dominica.
Lena: Five years after my surprise birthday visit, I returned to the island one month before my father’s 86th birthday.
Lena: Very upsetting to see how frail and thin my father has become. Leaves the room in tears.
Father: Cries when he sees me. He’s very sick and weak, barely able to walk, uses a wheelchair, which he has mastered around the house.
Lena: Within the next few days, I planned a birthday party, invited people in the village and gave him his final party.
Father: Unable to dance, but strong enough to enjoy his birthday party and cut his birthday cake.
Lena: That was my final birthday celebration with my father.
Father: He is very sad to see me leave, starts crying. Knows we might not see each other again.
Lena: Arrive at the airport, checked in too late, missed my flight. Returned home under bright, blue, sunny skies.
Father: Very happy to see me return and perks up a bit.
Lena: Sat on balcony admiring the beautiful blue sky while enjoying a cold drink. Spending another night in Dominica with my father, made a significant difference, to the both of us….. incidentally, that would have been our last night together, before his passing.
This incident occurred when I was about ten years old; yet, the memories are as vivid as they were that Saturday afternoon, so many many years ago. My father celebrated all his birthdays, sometimes the guest were many and sometimes just a few. My father counted his birthday by days and could easily tell you how old he was by days and years. His favorite quote was, “if life be long, I’ll be glad, if short, why should I be sad?” A very serious, yet extremely playful man, he easily got along with young and old people alike. He enjoyed playing dominos and was eager to play with just about anyone who could pick up a domino… including my nephew, Jaheil, who was about three years old at the time, but quickly understood my father’s intense, yet childlike love, for the domino game.
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about 6 months ago
Lena, just signed on to your website and could not help but feel a sense of loss as you relived the bithrday celebrations with your father.You may not have known it, but he was one of my mentors. I especially rememember when he was the Contractor at the since defunct Cabana Hotel project, our band was supposed to be the house band once the Hotel opened.
I am so grateful I was able to have a brief and final conversation with him in October 2003, when I visited Dominica. I met him at Mr. Henry Boland’s (My Aunty’s Husband)shop, our conversation was as usual cordial and friendly.
He is one of those elder Gentlemen in Marigot who will always be remembered.
Thanks for sharing your memories with us.
All the best,
Lindsay………
about 5 months ago
Lindsay, Thanks for reminding me about the hotel and your involvement there. I don’t remember about the band, but it was certainly good hearing about it and knowing that Daddy was also your mentor. Cabana is so different than it was in those years… all that’s left of a once bustling river/beach area is just memories. I suppose if the hotel had been successful, Cabana would have moved forward instead of what it is today. Too bad, because my father and the others worked very hard building that hotel. Well I suppose something great did come out of it, because we eventually made our way to the USA.
Once again, I appreciate your comment and look forward to turning these memories into musicals, when I return to Dominica. Like my father, I feel most comfortable on the island and can hardly wait to return.
about 5 months ago
Thanks Leno.
about 5 months ago
Your are very welcome.
about 5 months ago
Lena I too, have a similar story, maybe about the same age. It was when we moved to Weirs, daddy planted the mango tree. It was the first mango the grafted ‘julie’ mango tree ever produced. Daddy said to leave it until it was ripe enough to pick, and it would be shared so that everyone gets a slice of the first mango, and he did with the first paw-paw etc… Passing by the mango tree, each time it got a little more tempting. One day it got too much for me. As the tree was still in it’s dwaflike stage, it was easy to bite it on the tree. I panicked, picked the mango and ran inside the house saying that this boy that was passing by did it. I assume they knew i did it, but no more was said about it. The mango was really sweet, which it still is today in it’s gigantic stage. I still do feel bad about it,as the person i blamed still lives in the village. There i’ve said it.
Living in England, i still crave mangoes. If i were to sum it up, i must have spent my plane fares in bad tasteless mangoes. Occasionally, i do get some really nice julie mangoes in the summer. When i see the apple trees laiden in the summer months, i try to imagine them being mango trees, but it still does not have the same feeling as seeing a mango tree covered with mangoes. In times gone by, my brother Tommy used to bring up one or two apples from Roseau, the taste was out of this world, now my garden makes use of my apples, as they don’t have the same appeal as when they were unobtainable.
Mangoes and bananas are my favourite fruits, and will always be my fruit of choice. My brother once said, if he died, and came back alive, and they told him it was bananas that killed him, he would still eat them!!
about 5 months ago
Hi Ilma,
You see, everybody has a story to tell. I am sure if that person would learn of the incident, he would just enjoy a good laugh. After all, you were both children when the incident occurred, and he might even have a similar story, if not funnier.
I wish more people would be willing to share their short stores. Maybe I will just ask people to do so and see if anyone replies. Thanks again for sharing your story.