Veronica came to England from Jamaica when she was 9. Her mum was just 25 and had given birth to Veronica when she was a teenager and still at school.
Everyone knew Veronica’s mum as Pearl, and she was a talented seamstress. Veronica’s dad, Charlie, worked for British Rail. He was also a skilled carpenter and picture framer and could make and repair shoes as a hobby. They settled in Clapham in SW London.
For newly arrived West Indian families, inherent racism from the banks and the fact that they had no history in England meant that getting a bank account was very difficult. Because of this, many people from the Caribbean set up ‘Pardner’ Schemes.
The Pardner system was initially brought to Jamaica by enslaved Africans and used to purchase freedom.
The scheme is based on friends, neighbours, or relatives agreeing to contribute money to the pot each week over a fixed term. Each month, a scheme member gets the whole pot, which means they get a lump sum to help pay for a deposit on a flat, set up a business, get a car, or something similar. This scheme is based entirely on trust, and only people with a good reputation can participate.
Veronica’s family used the Pardner scheme a lot in those early days in the UK.
When Veronica was small back in Jamaica, she fell from a verandah and injured her head. Her family didn’t think her injury looked bad and just gave her some sugared water (A Jamaican cure-all). They never took her to the hospital.
When she came to school in England, the teachers noticed something wasn’t quite right and advised her to see a doctor. The doctor said that she had damage to the back of her skull, restricting the blood supply to her brain. The facilities in London meant that Veronica started getting the medical treatment she needed.
She had a seizure in her late teens and then had an operation to put a stent into the arteries in her neck and head to improve the blood flow to her brain, which seemed to help at the time. After school, Veronica worked in a factory in Battersea that made nurses’ uniforms. In her early twenties, while living at home, Veronica got pregnant and had a baby girl. The relationship with the baby’s dad didn’t work out, so her mum helped her with the baby.
Although they were no longer a couple, the baby’s dad would often call around in his bright yellow Triumph Dolomite and remained a part of Veronica and his daughter’s life. A few years later, Veronica met Winston at a house party. He was also from Jamaica and worked in a plastics factory in South London. They had a son and, in 1978, decided to get married.
Veronica’s mum, Pearl, who was known as ‘Auntie P’ by then, made the wedding and the bridesmaids’ dresses. It was considered bad luck for Veronica’s 7-year-old daughter, Michelle, to be a bridesmaid. Michelle remembers being jealous of her cousins getting dressed up on her mum’s wedding day.
