Sonny

I grew up in Jamaica.  I came here when I was eighteen.  I was brought up by my Grandmother; my dad’s mum.  My mum was around but was mostly in what you would call the mental hospital.  She was never really capable.  My Granny take the stress off her and take the responsibility off me mum.  I’ve only known me mum that way.  She had a time when she go up.  She have a time when she go down.  I’d see her every school holiday.  She lived in the rural area and we lived in the city; Kingston.  She was in the rural side of Jamaica. 

My dad? Oh, Lord he was funny.  He was a funny, funny man.  To me, he was a hero.  I can’t find words to describe how great he was.    Everything I know is from me dad.  He was a person for life and love.  You’d never see the man not smiling.  He was the best man in the world for me.  I was never hungry one day or go without a pair of shoes.  My granny, she own a restaurant and her fridge was always full of food.  Dad was an undertaker.  A happy undertaker.  He would work seven days a week to make sure all of us kids had things.  My dad lived with his wife but I seen my dad every day.  But he was a bit of a Jack the Lad as they say.  There were twelve of us.  Me, Denise and Sandra had the same mum and dad, then he had three with one lady, two with another and then one, one, one and one.  His wife didn’t have no kids with him.  It was only kids with the other ladies.  I don’t think he planned to have all those kids, it’s just the type of man he was.  My Gran would say ‘Sonny.  You have too much kids.  Don’t have no more’ but each new one come along granny loved them.  And my dad loved them all.  He loved all the women too.  He was a good looking, sharp dressed man.  He was a peacock and drew women to him.  All of the women, the mothers, get on.  It was just his wife and them not get on.  Him and his wife they do argue as well.  There is no relationship gonna be perfect but he done a lot of cheating and she was never happy with that.  I’m not gonna comment on their relationship because you can have a man cheat on a woman many times and the woman still forgive the man.  But she didn’t.  She killed him.     

He passed away eight years ago.  He was seventy three.  He had cirrhosis of the liver.  My father never drank but his wife for years she was putting things in his meal so she could try to keep him so he wouldn’t go to nobody else and keep him from making more babies with other ladies.  But over the years she was doing that it started destroying his liver.  He was full of toxins when he died.  He was still smartly dressed and always had a smile on his face though.  Even in his last days he had a smile for us kids and a smile for the ladies.