WEDNESDAY WOMAN - For the love of the show

Andrea Goodridge showing off two of the awards she received for her continuous commitment and support to the Richard Stoute Teen (Sharon Harding)

By Anesta Henry | Wed, November 30, 2011 - 12:00 AM

ANDREA GOODRIDGE is a Richard Stoute Teen Talent Contest junkie.

She has attended the annual competition, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, for 33 years.

Within that 33 years, she has missed only three nights of the show.

“When the Sundays come and the show in season, I don’t care what I got to do; everything cancel because I am going to Richard Stoute show. One time a man told me that he would stop me from going to the show . . . I ended up carrying him to the show too,” said the shopkeeper at her Gall Hill, Christ Church home.

So committed was Goodridge to attending the show one year that she discharged herself from hospital.

“One time I was in hospital because the pressure had me. I had drips here, drips there and an IV in my neck. I told the doctor I had to go home, I couldn’t miss Richard Stoute show. The doctor said, ‘You can’t go home’. I said, ‘I can’t go home? I going to the show you’.

“The Sunday morning I got up and discharged myself and went to Richard Stoute the night and went back to the hospital the Monday morning like nothing happened.

“The doctor asked me where I went and I told him, ‘To Richard Stoute show, call Richard and ask him’. Man, I did so much crap to go to that show. Looking back now, I can’t believe it.”

Another time, the 42-year-old mother of three ignored labour pains “just to go to that show.”

“I was in labour with my last girl, she is ten now. The whole Sunday I was in labour, but all I telling myself is that I’m going to this show tonight, I don’t care how much pain I’m in.

“My friend called me and told me, ‘You going to the hospital’. I said, ‘I am going to show you hospital’. I left home, dropped off the suitcase at the hospital and went to the Steel Shed.

The pain had me so bad I left the show and went over to the hospital. The doctor told me, ‘You’re four centimeters dilated; you are going to soon have the baby’.

“The show started at 6:30 and the child born at 7:10,” said the Richard Stoute Teen Talent fan, who has been awarded by the show’s host for her outstanding devotion.

Sitting in the front seat reserved for her and whether the contestants “sound bad or good, Andrea is clapping for them. When some of them feel like giving up, Andrea is there encouraging them.

I just love to be there for the contestants”.

Goodridge added: “I love to go to that show because it relieves my stress. I look forward to this show every year. When I’ve got problems and I go to the show, I forget about all of them until I get back home.

“I go to that show to have fun and let loose and make bare sport. Listening to those children sing sweetly is the best thing you could want in life.”