DEAR LOVING PEOPLE OF ST JOHN,
Since 1987 when you first embraced me as your friend and then your elected representative, it has been my happy privilege to be among you on a frequent basis.
In recent months, however, I have not been able to visit you in your homes, have a drink with you in the shops, worship with you or even share a joke on the block. As you know, I have had some serious health challenges which have curtailed my active life, including my enjoyable sojourns to St John to see you.
You would have heard from me on every occasion that I have shared my sentiments with the entire country. But for me that’s simply not enough for the people of St John given the very close relationship which has always been renewed through our face to face contact throughout these past 23 years.
Life has been lonely without you. I have therefore decided to write you a more personalised letter.
In my quiet moments I have happily replayed in my mind the truly splendid times we have shared on the hard courts at Gall Hill; on the streets of Cherry Grove; the hills of Society; and in the hamlets of Venture and Edge Cliff; and the neighbourhoods of Massiah Street, Mount Tabor, Sherbourne and College Savannah.
I yearn for a special opportunity in the not too distant future to be able to do it all over and over again. And with your prayers and God’s help I will. In the meantime the programme to improve the quality of life, which I have personally been able to direct since January 2008 is being given the special attention it always deserved.
There is more work to be done that will be done. There will be personal needs to be attended to, and you are already aware of the well-known persons in your community and in my office with whom you can be in contact for assistance and direction.
They are under instruction to act on my behalf because I am yours and you are mine. Be comforted in the knowledge that while I dearly love all of Barbados, the special bond between you the people of St John and me is unshakeable, even in difficult times of sickness and separation.
Know for sure that this experience has brought me much closer to God, whose compassionate love and grace I commend to you based particularly on my personal experience these past six months.
I invite you to continue to uphold my family and me in prayer at home and at church; in communities and in neighbourhoods wherever you meet.
I remain not just your caring Prime Minister, but your dedicated representative and your true friend and confidant.
May God comfort everyone who may have lost relatives in recent times; may He bless all who are faced with personal and health challenges; indeed, may He bless each and every family of St John; each and every child.
– DAVID THOMPSON
