Family Drama

To truly get how we ended up here, right now, we gotta dig back. Some folks? They’ll just call it a big pity party, me begging for attention, or trying too hard for a pat on the back. But the old wise ones? They always said there are three sides to every story: theirs, mine �" the one telling it �" and the Creator’s.

Going back over your own past… it’s never as easy as everyone makes it sound. We tell ourselves, “Just don’t look back, don’t talk about it, and you’ll be fine.” Time, we whisper, heals everything. But come on, let’s be real: when you’re alone, really alone, your mind just spirals. It drags out all the demons you tried to bury. We all carry something that just… holds us back, something that haunts our every waking thought. Even when things seem calm, there’s this feeling, unsettling, like a storm is just quietly gathering. A constant echo of a life that was never, ever gentle.

It all began when I was leaving high school, going into college. That transition? It was so emotional. Zelina was leaving her comfort zone, leaving the country life. It was lively, but also quiet �" a neighbourhood built on love, respect, everyone looking out for each other, for the old folks and the little ones. Zelina lived with both her grandparents. Then Granddaddy passed. Granddaddy Dean. He was the best man you could ever know. Sharp dresser, smart, witty, charismatic, and always calm. He loved Grandma so much. The man was a lover of music. Zelina got her skin washed at a very young age, thinking those big CDs were flying discs. But no, those big flying discs were Granddaddy’s records for his record player. The amount of cut skin I got because of that record player! It was so antique, but it wasn't a toy. Zelina learned that the hard way. When Granddaddy passed, the house was quiet for a very, very long time. No one touched Granddaddy’s records but him. He had every genre imaginable. And don’t get it twisted, it took a good while before Zelina finally popped out a Christmas carol record and took her time to hook it up and play it for her and Granny. Granddaddy Dean always used to say, “Granny isn’t well,” and that when he passed, it would

only get worse. That man never told a lie. Granny started forgetting so much. The best chef, the best sweet treat maker, she was getting ill, and it was showing. Granny started forgetting her children, one by one. Forgetting how to make all the sweet treats and bake the goods she loved. Granny Wharf and Granddaddy Dean lived on a corner street in Pt. Dor, in a two-storey house with a yard filled with so many fruit trees, seasoning plants everywhere, all completed with the beauty of lovely bouquets of flowers blooming almost everywhere you looked. Granny Wharf was a lover of orchids; there were so many colours, and they were always flowering. Has anyone ever gotten their skin whaled on by their grannies for playing 'cook' with their flowers? Zelina got hers washed, even yelled at in front of friends, all because of those plants. Raiding the fruit trees was never an issue, but those flowers? They were not to be played with. They were there for beautification. The yard also had a shed for chickens and ducks, as my grandparents minded them for a few years. After his passing, for…

years that they were popular in the vicinity grandaddy the music man having the area lively with his music and granny wharf the chef black cake wines bread sweet mango Cherrie jam sucker bags everyone calling out when they passing to buy either or and her hand was good that everyone wanted seconds. This lady had people lining up by the gate to our kitchen back door for their goodies for all the children in the neighbourhood was the sweet treats and sucker bags we all wanted especially when the sun blazing yet everyone on the road running up and down either a water fight, football plum wars, cricket and anything else we could of think up to play or do for fun during the summer school vacation also during this time we all would go VBS, sabbath and Sunday school where we met other children learn a lot about the bible and play a lot of games involving the scripters and verses that we would of learned for the day sometimes they would initiated a pop quiz for the next day at these events where you can have a chance to win many prizes there was a sense of community and love with all the different

background of children would gather laugh and eat and be intrigued by the book of life or the rule book as Zelina heard growing up.

They were many club activitied to partake in the community also used to have its own bestvillage contest to comepete other neighbourning commites netball camp football camp track and field and many more activities the park, panyard and club were the places to be as the club you either pratice drama or the best village dancing however the mainevents advised were zelinas go to especially in a neighborhood where you could of count how many girl were in the group on like one hand as the rest were boys however they came like your big brothers as the looked out for you in each way most of these folks in pt dor were pan players for the best band the nightangales as much as i yearned to play pan unfirtunately i was unable to partake or even learn hardest part that passing the pan yard was each day was on my route to heading back home or even to the shop by the lenords if passing back on the route anyways besides play pan goiing vbs sabbath and sunday school palying games in the road or pan pratice we livied walking distance to two beaches one didnt have much of a name but you could of walked down on it at that time most people didnt bathe their because if the condidtion of the beach hwever you could of walked fro that beach to the very populalar beach now known as carrot shed as much as living pt dor with my grandparents i only learned this from one of my favourite cousins whom visited pt dor frequently when schhol closed she was also know in the area and had friends of her own she were oldere so i couldnt go everywhere she went however most of the times she carried me with her to the beach for food walk by to her one of good friends home as this was one of the only girls within her age bracket that she would lime with once shes in the vicinty Jasmine my fav cousin was also my hairstylist was always so happy when shes around as i know i getting a lil break from the granny plats when shes around and get to go many more places than normally i was like her little sister with all the untold secrets shed carried me to the pitch lake beach or just to get food was always sad when her and friend got

to go jouvert for both carnival and borough they always would wear or make the custest fit to go and come back dirty half way making up the step or juist inthe yard where you got to spray them down or theyd sleep downstairs which was a one bedroom with a bathroom wash room and space for a kitchen and living room at that time we just used it as a storaghe room and when they family is coming down for holidays wed have to clean and organize so the boys can sleep downstairs and the girls upstairs sometimes it will have bodies on bodies as is all the cousins aunties uncles and cousins coming down for the holidays seasons of just the summer vacation these times granny stretching 1 tea bag for over 10 people to drink tea andf gues what there tea for everyon and seconds if you wanted granny was the queen and best chef down granny house was the place for you to get fatten she was the queen and the glue to the pack.