AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Donna Black, née Delph, and I lived in six-seven different countries in the space of 15 years.

I come from Woodbrook. We lived in Trincity before, when it was first developed, opposite Orange Grove Estate and they had all the canes all around it.

One older sister wanted to live in town. My father said, right, that’s it! And we all moved to Warren Street. Thank God for Beverly!

My parents had come from Guyana for my father, Compton, to work for newspapers.

The friends I made at St Joseph’s Convent in Port of Spain are still friends up to this day. We have reunions every five years.

But I feel we should have them every two years. Who know what’s going to happen at this tender age?

I’m the fifth of six children: Camille, Verita, Beverly, Gordon, the late junior table tennis champ, me, then Suzanne.

The first four were born in Guyana.

I don’t know if I’m really Trinidadian because I was born in Trinidad. but started in Guyana. I came across first-class. In the stomach.

I got married to a Jamaican, Richard. I'm Trini, he is Jamaican, and we live in Barbados. So we are very West Indian.

I always thought of myself as Trini first, but definitely West Indian after.

When I met Richard, he was working in Libya. I said let's just have fun because you are living so far away and I am not leaving Trinidad. You can come and visit.

We got married a year or so after we met, because I was pregnant with our first child.

Joelle, Allesandra and Nicolas all got their names from places we lived. Although the girls were born in Trinidad, we were in France and Italy before.

We call Alessandra “Ale” for short, pronounced Ah-lay. People in the Caribbean of course call her Ali.

We spent three years in Norway, where Nicolas was born. We call him Nico at home but, again, in the Caribbean, they have to call him Nick.

I am a practising Catholic and believe in a Catholic God.

But a lot of people have decided not to follow God.

I’m still figuring it out. I’m a work in progress but I believe in my prayer. It’s something I can fall back on.

My husband used to work with an oil service company. We were in Ivory Coast but we had to leave because there was a coup.

I went back home to have Ale. Then we moved to Cameroon, which was a beautiful place. Lovely places to bring your kids up. They both reminded me of Trinidad.

After O-Levels in ‘78, I worked at a bank as a teller, but in 1980, my friend Juliet Chufor-Beresford applied to BWIA and told me I should, too.

It was the fashion and I had my hair curled in an Afro at the interview.

They said, “Okay, we like you. But you need to cut that hair.”

I said, “But I’m five foot one. What you going to do about my height?”

They said, “You can wear heels!”

I flew with BWee for ten years.

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