Sadola’s Story

Further Info

This story was made by members of the Malcolm X Elders Forum (based at the Malcolm X centre in St Pauls) working with staff from the Museum of Bristol and Watershed.

The participants, many of whom had moved from Jamaica to Britain in the 1950s, wrote the stories of their younger lives, which were recorded, and edited into short films by Paddy Uglow, using participants’ photos and other photographs (used under Creative Commons license).

Other project workers were Ruth Jacobs, Sarwat Siddiqui, Jackie Winchester and Aikaterini Gegisian. The project was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

I was born in Jamaica in 1929, in the parish of Portland, Jamaica, and it is one of the most beautiful islands in the West Indies. I was a very happy young lady and had a very happy childhood.

After leaving school my mother sent me to sewing class to learn dressmaking. I spent six months in the city of Kingston and then returned home to Portland town.

I got a job in a restaurant and after about one year I left this job and went back to my mother’s home.

A young man called the name of Haldon Downer saw me and fell in love with me. Haldon was a very hard working young man and came from a very wealthy family. He works as a butcher and was also a policeman.

He wrote a letter to my parents asking for my hand in marriage. My mother and my father were delighted and agreed. We were married in 1948.

I had our first child, a baby girl, one year later. We went on to have three boys.

In 1956, we decided that it would be a good idea for Haldon to go to England to work. England was calling out for workers, especially from the colonies.

His aim was to spend five years in England. However, after a few months he asked me to come to England. This was the hardest decision of my life, because it leaving behind our children, but it had to be done in order of having a better life.

I left Jamaica in December of 1956. Our children were left with my mother, their aunties and uncles. We missed the children tremendously. This was a very sad time for me.

Everything here was so different. All the buildings were made of concrete and bricks, and everywhere are looking so different – there didn’t seems to be any colour. There were no trees lining the streets, no fruit trees in the garden, no sunshine.

In Jamaica, everyone had fruits trees and vegetables growing in their gardens. If you need any herbs, vegetables, fruit, it was just a few steps away. Jamaica was so sunny and England was so cold. There was a good few inches of snow on the ground which surprised me. The only snow I ever saw was the peaks of the Blue Mountains. Life in England was truly a culture shock.

After about a month I found a job in Bristol Royal Infirmary, the operating theatre as a domestic. After this job I got a job at Cadina(?) coffee on Park Street. I also work for Smiths Crisps in Brislington. Staying there for about a year we decided we could have a good life here, so we stayed in England and sent for our four children in Jamaica.

I got a job as a geriatric nurse in Manor Park Hospital and we soon had enough money to buy a house in Montpelier. We had three more suprises – two more boys and a girl. I gave up work to look after them. We live in this lovely Victorian house in Montplier with our seven children. We spent over forty years in this house.

Slowly, one by one, the children left home and all the people had moved on. The house was just too big for my husband and I to look after, so in 2003 we moved to a much smaller house in Fishponds.

Credits

Buildings picture created by Sarwat Siddiqui, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Buildings picture created by Jackie Winchester, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Café sound created by milo, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Crisps picture created by Glutnix, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Hall picture created by sheilaz413, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Hospital picture created by Smiles for the world, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Jamaica sunset picture created by fitaloon, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Sewing machine sound created by Anton, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Ship picture created by Peter Kaminski, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Snow picture created by pixietart, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Sofa picture created by luisvilla, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

St Pauls pictures picture created by Museum of Bristol Archive, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Storks picture created by willyk, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Tea picture created by emily harbour in july, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.