As part of the Nation Publishing Company’s 50th anniversary of Independence celebrations, the WEEKEND NATION team – through this series – This Is My Story – will be speaking to people who migrated to the island and visitors who have come and fallen in love with our shores. We invite you to share with us or point us in the direction of an interesting person we can feature each week.
WILMA MORRIS IS the perfect example of what you would refer to as a “TriniBajan”.
Having been born in Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Morris has called Barbados home since moving here in 1969.
Now as the 74-year-old reflects on her life, she has described the decision to move here as “a perfect one”.
Recalling her younger days, Morris said before relocating to Barbados, she regularly visited her sister who lived here.
She said long before coming here to live, a love for the island had blossomed.
“My sister used to live here and she was good friends with Errol Barrow, so I came here regularly to visit her. After a few visits I absolutely fell in love with Barbados. I thought it was a very beautiful place,” Morris told the WEEKEND NATION from her home in The Villages at Coverley, Christ Church.
“It is an absolutely fantastic place and whenever I came to Barbados, although it would be for a short time, I would always enjoy myself.”
She eventually got married, gave birth to a daughter and purchased a house in Diego Martin,where she settled down.
But after that relationship ended, Morris took the bold step to take her daughter and move to Barbados for good.
“I made the decision that me and my daughter would live in Barbados after that. I came here and I enrolled at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus and I graduated with a degree.
“My mother encouraged me to have a solid education so that I would be in a good position to support myself and my daughter,” she explained.
She said after graduating, she worked for several years at the university before retiring.
And 47 years later, she has absolutely no regrets.
The elderly woman said although she still took biennial trips to her country of birth, she considered Barbados to be her home.
“I’ve really come to love living here in Barbados. I’m a Trinidadian, but Barbados is my home.
“I like the beaches here, although Trinidad has some nice beaches too. But I find that in Barbados it is easy going and nice,” Morris explained.
She said while she lived in Cave Hill, St Michael for the majority of her time here, she had recently moved to the Christ Church development because of a “need to downsize”.
After suffering a fall recently which required surgery to her left ankle, Morris explained that she doesn’t go out as regularly as she was once accustomed to.
However, she was content to “stay home, watch television and relax”.
“My daughter lives in the US now, so I live here alone, but it is beautiful so I don’t mind. I don’t mind one bit,” she said with a huge smile.
Morris said she was in especially high spirits as she had recently received the news that her only granddaughter, who lives in the US, had received a scholarship to Harvard University. (RB)
