Cockscomb Range

I was born in Stann Creek Town and lived in Pomona Valley in a small community overshadowed by the Cockscomb Mountains to the west.

A Mayan Family in Belize

The Mayans were the first known people to live in Belize (British Honduras).  Although in they are described as extinct in many academic reports, many indigenous Mayans can still be found in South West Belize, as well as other locations.  I remember visiting Xunantunich Maya ruin for a high school field trip during my teens, while attending St. Hilda's College, and was astounded to see indigenous Mayans that stuck closely to their ancestral cultures and traditions.  How foreign it was to see topless women washing their clothes on the rocks at the river side, and little Mayan children playing nearby.

Slavery in Belize

The Citrus Company (Pomona Valley)

My family lived in Pomona Valley in the Stann Creek District until Hurricane Hattie drove us to Corozal District.  Both my mother and father worked at this factory before and after that time.

Belize Blue Hole

The Great Blue Hole is a large submarine sinkhole off the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 70 km (43 mi) from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, over 300 m (984 ft) across 

and 124 m (407 ft) deep.It was formed during several episodes of Quaternary glaciation when sea levels were much lower - the analysis of stalactites found in Great Blue Hole shows that formation took place 153,000, 66,000, 60,000, and 15,000 years ago. As the ocean began to rise again, the caves were flooded.The Great Blue Hole is a part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a World Heritage Site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

I Am Grateful To All My Surrogate Parents

Today, I think about Miss Joyce Arnold, whose life touched and influenced my journey significantly.  Jay passed away about a month ago in Belize.  I met her when I was a young girl of eleven years old when she moved to the ghettos of Yarborough where I then lived with my single-mother family.  My father was never around after I reached age seven, and my mother courageously kept her family together to the best of her ability until we were teenagers.   For this of  I also give credit to  a wide range of extended family members who participated in raising me up from the abyss of a daunting childhood.  Jay was one of those people.  She favored and respected me from the first day we met.  In her sublime manner, she helped me from age eleven, through my teenage years.  She never said no to me when I went to her for help, and her face would often display her concern for my well-being.  She sat down and talked to me when I needed her...always finding time for me.  No matter where I ran into her, she was always the same to me...and I love her with all my heart.

From the Author - The Making of Mangrove Roots Chronicles

Writing this book has been a quite a journey for me.  I started writing the book at a time when I felt very lost in life.  My personal and professional life were in shambles as far as I could see.  I needed to dig into the depths of my being to understand what was really going on with me.  I was depressed with life in general, and felt disillusioned and hopeless.  I knew that I had to make some quick changes in order to survive.  My oldest child was fifteen years old, my middle child was 13, and my youngest was three years old.  My recent marriage had failed...well, it felt like a "real" marriage had never started. I had quit my job of six years to start a business which was also failing.  I was at a crossroads in life, and knew my change needed to be immediate.  It was do or die.   That was  a little over twenty years ago.

 I sat at my new PC and started writing one night.  I just started writing about my childhood.  Then I wanted to tell my story...even if it were to myself.  I had no idea that I would publish a book at this point, but knew that I had to write it all down.  The journey began with the vague memory of a little girl at three years old.  I started getting flashes of what my life was and the memories began seeping in.  Then as I wrote; I started getting flashes of memories I had long repressed...and I cried.  As I cried, I wrote...every night...sometimes all night long, for a few months, unfolding my life and realizing the purpose of a burning desire to write it down.  I needed to see how the tapestry of my life was knitted together to prepare me for now.  I realized that the hurt and frightened little girl inside of me was alive and actively participating in every thing I did.  That was unsettling.  That little girl was making big decisions for me, and I needed to take control of my life if I were to survive.

I wrote about life as I remembered growing up in Belize.  Sometimes I would stop and literally sob when a repressed memory would pop up.  Suddenly I would be faced with an incident or situation that I was previously oblivious. .After a while, I had narrated most of my life story, and felt a sense of purging and cleansing as I worked my way through what had now become a project.  About three years later, I shared it with a colleague I had met in one of my classes at LA Trade Technical College, where I was pursuing a higher education.  She was totally awed by the experience of reading my "manuscript", which she suggested I should publish.  I agreed with her, but I did not have the guts to put my story out there for the world to read.   I also thought about the various people involved in my life story, and how my candidness would affect them.  I made a conscious decision to put my manuscript, and the idea of even getting it published it on the back burner.

A year ago in 2009, I was reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and learned that the manuscript for her book was put aside for about ten years before she retrieved it and got it published.  That book turned out to be her masterpiece...and at that point, food for thought to me.  I returned to my manuscript and decided to review it and consider getting it published.  I realize this is my life, and the only life I have as this individual, and the book records those things in life that impact me the most from the time I can remember.  I believe this book will impact someone's life positively.