Miss Ina: City icon

By Morris Greenidge
| Wed, June 13, 2012 - 12:00 AM

()

At a time when Bridgetown is rejoicing at its designation as a World Heritage Site, the jubilation is certainly tinged with sadness at the passing of one who has been an icon in The City.

When researchers pore over dusty and grimy documents and stare endlessly at blurred microfilm – sometimes with little reward – there is nothing more enthralling than to sit with someone who has lived through the age and who is as hardy, as lucid and as understanding as Miss Ina Pickering was, even in her final months.

She was, to me, in my quest to compile Bridgetown, Barbados, A Walking Tour, the ultimate resource for the years going back to the 1920s, for she had instant recall, even of her first days at Queen’s College.

She could recite the names of families and their houses in Cheapside when much younger folk could not remember the names of the houses in which they lived.

She was easily able to discuss the names and locations of businesses and their owners, and of the hotels of Tudor Street and Milk Market – The Colonial and The New Zealand – which largely escaped the annals of the newspapers of the day.

I am saddened by her passing and publicly express my condolences to her bereaved relatives and friends.