By Tom Rakocevic

In this month’s My Story column I speak to Winifred Flesar about her family’s struggle with poverty in Guyana, and her mothers endless resilience.Even into adulthood, Winifred used to love watching her mother go about her daily tasks, “When I hugged my mom close, she always smelled so sweet. The trick was the bars of soap she would place in her drawers.”Today, her mother Janny lives on only in the memories of those who remember her.Winifred remembers a particular warm afternoon in Little Diamond, Guyana during the late seventies.At the time, Winifred was in her early twenties and recently married. Her mother lived with the young couple. That afternoon, Janny was going through her drawers and packing a suitcase for a trip to see her brother. Winifred sat smiling on the bed in Janny’s room, watching her mother just as she would in her youth.Suddenly, Janny stiffened.From the bed, Winifred could see that her mom was staring at something she had picked out of the drawer. Janny’s back was to her daughter.“Mom? What’s wrong?”No answer.Winifred got up and moved closer. Her mother was frozen looking at an old, crinkled newspaper clipping. The faces looked familiar to Winifred.“Mom, who are they?” Startled out of her daydream, Janny crushed the paper into her fist and began tearing it apart. Tears began to stream down her face.Winifred was shocked, “What’s wrong, mom!? What was on that paper?”It was a while before her mother responded, “History, Baby. Bad History.”“You might still call me ‘Baby’, but I am big now. I want to know. Please mom, it’s ok. Tell me.”And so, with great difficulty Janny spoke about Winifred’s childhood. The challenges their family faced; the poverty.The clipping was a picture taken in the summer of 1954.Winifred was only a couple of months old and lived with her mother, aunt, and brother in a tiny rented basement apartment with mud floors. The landlord lived in the large house and shop above.Elsie, Winifred’s aunt, worked 7 days a week from morning until night in the shop as well as in the landlord’s house as a cleaner and cook. She was paid $9 a month and rent was $7.50.Janny worked at the marketplace from morning to night and brought home the food for them to eat. Both Janny and Elsie’s husbands had left them, and so the two sisters moved together to share expenses and raise their children. Janny and Elsie’s parents were deceased.At the time, Elsie was pregnant with her second child. She continued working as hard as she could, but one day fell very ill and was unable to work the full day. A few days later, she took a long break during the morning to visit the doctor regarding her pregnancy.After returning, she quickly prepared lunch for the children before resuming work. The landlord came into the apartment. His arms were crossed, and his voice was stern, “I’ve thought about it Elsie, and this can’t go on. First you were sick and missed work, and now you miss work to go to the doctor. What’s going to happen when you have the baby?”And so, he threw them all out onto the street.The story came to the attention of a local newspaper and a picture was taken of the family. Thanks to the article, a relative learned of their plight and picked them up since they had nobody else.Winifred listened respectfully and when her mother finished, she hugged her close, “There is nothing to be ashamed of, mom. Lift your face up.”Until that day, Winifred and her mother never really discussed their hardships. Her mother had never expressed the shame she felt about their poverty. Winifred knew that her mother had tried her best for the family, but in the system they lived in, it was hard to climb up from the bottom. There is far more to her story, enough to easily fill a book.She has many reflections of her past. “Life was tough but I still found happiness. My family struggled but we were content with what we had. All good things were a blessing.”Winifred believes life today is needlessly complicated, and many don’t appreciate what they have. She has plenty of advice for today’s youth, “My poverty growing up limited me in many ways, especially my [lack of] education. That was a wall I faced my entire life. I see many youth who take school for granted, and spend too much time on fancy things that lead to nothing.”Today, Winifred speaks glowingly about the opportunity she was given here in Canada. She worked as a seamstress and is now retired, and a proud owner of a condominium apartment in our community. She is truly a proud Canadian.But with all the opportunity Canada has, Winifred fears we are headed in the wrong direction, “My mother and aunt spent almost all of their money on rent. After food, clothes and the rest we were left with nothing. We were trapped. Today, the average apartment rent is over a thousand dollars. At a minimum wage salary, how can you live?”Winifred was eventually able to track down another copy of that newspaper article. Her mother held onto it for twenty years only to rip it apart in shame in her daughter’s presence. To Winifred, it is a profound reminder of her own history.To us, it may serve as a sobering warning of the future.