Have you ever reflected on your life and realized how far you have come. Like...I was so poor as a child, I didn't have a meal everyday.
I remember when my mother was working at the "Freezone" and earning (it was either $20 or $40) a week.....

The only time we would eat a proper meal was on Friday when she got paid. It would always be steam fish and white rice...the choice was parrot fish. Now I know that was because it was cheap...my mother had five of us...and quickly too...with no man to help her...

Each time she got a child, she would get a man to "help" her, then after pregnancy, he was gone. As a first born, I learnt quickly to be responsible. I had to care for my siblings when my mother was gone to hustle to feed us...

We only had one room in a family house...with one bed. The floor was where me and my brother after me slept. My grandmother was a great help for me. They say of her 14 grandchildren who were born before she died, I was the favourite. ..

She worked in the Air Jamaica building Downtown, and I loved to visit her and inhale the coffee aroma which permeated the air as the elevator door opened. When she died, things got tougher. I went to school in spells. Textbooks I never owned again until I went to university....

Uniforms were hand me downs from my cousins...I had to force my feet in shoes which were either too small or too narrow for me. At one time, it would be a white shoes that some uncle would give me. I died it black and begged polish each week to keep the colour....

...but at school, I excelled. When I had 10cents, nutri bun and milk was my lunch. Otherwise, I would ask to go home for lunch, knowing well...nothing was there for me to eat except sugar and water. But no one would know...

If I had nothing at all, no one would know. I would go and hide at the back of the school so no one would know i had no lunch. I was too proud to beg. Instead, I would wash out my mouth to hide the hungry breath and drink water till my belly was full....

But I was never deterred. The teachers thought me bright enough to skip grade 3 and send me off to high school at 10. I competed in the Spelling Bee and was in the top 10. Passed the common entrance for high school where things got worse because now I had to find bus fare....

...and no lunch money...I struggled through. Lost my way at times..but still was able to complete high school. Was recommended for 13 subjects, but only managed to beg enough to pay for only 5. I did them, got a job as an inventory clerk at UHWI pharmacy...

...paid for A Level evening classes...got some A's...to this day I don't know how. Was the first of my household (my grandmother's children and grandchildren) to go to University. Did the math and realized it would be cheaper for me to live on campus rather than commute....

Studied economics, lost my way again...then found it again. Complete undergrad, moved on to post graduate, complete that and move on.
Now when I am hungry, its not because I don't have anything to eat. My children don't miss a day at school and get most things they ask for....

...they don't miss a meal...have adequate clothes...sleep in a bed by themselves in their own room. They have a father who is not absent and one who tells them everyday how much they are loved.

There's more to my story. I will tell it one at a time, when I get the time.