Interesting Meeting at Andrews Memorial Hospital - Vernon Derby

Last year I was invited by some of my past students from Papine High School to address them at a hotel in Montego Bay. One of the past students decided to invite me to speak although I did not teach her at Papine High. She however heard about me because I taught her husband at Lowe River All-Age School in Trelawny.

When I arrived at the venue, I saw a beautiful young lady struggling to control her son and trying to manage her luggage at the same time. I offered to assist her. I noticed that she started directing me where to put what as if I was actually working with the hotel but that did not bother me at all.

When we  went inside the lobby of the hotel, I wished her all the best because it was approaching the time for my speaking engagement. She turned sharply to speak to me while speaking with the clerk at the front desk and said, "Do you work here?"

I said to her, "No, I am just staying for the night."

She seemed very shocked.  She said to me that she thought that I worked with the hotel. She apologized. I then said to her that it was no problem because I really wanted to assist her. I gave her my name and then I asked her what was her name.

I realized that she has the same name as a friend of mine for over 30 years. I found out then that it my friend's daughter. We had a good laugh after that, exchanged telephone contacts and talked about doing good for others.

This afternoon I went to Andrews Memorial Hospital and as I surveyed the room, I felt an atmosphere which was tense. Persons were having various health challenges and it was obvious that they all wanted to see the doctor immediately.

The silence was broken by a lady who was trying to get her son to listen to her. She was councelling her little boy. She said to him that we cannot survive alone and we have to depend on others. She went on to tell her son how to think of others. Her son seems as if he is about six years old.

I turned to her and said, "If your son learns that lesson well then that lesson will be more important than all the lessons he will learn at high school.

She then looked at me with her piercing eys and with her face lit up with a broad smile and said, "Vernon Derby! You are the person who assisted me with my suitcases at the hotel!"

I then said to her, "I see that you are teaching your son the same lesson we talked about in Montego Bay."

She was now not well and there was a wound to the right side of her head. She told me that she was walking and suffered from a faint spell and she fell and hit her hear. She was anxious to find out what was wrong. She was smiling but sad at the same time. Her son was showing all the signs of caring and loving his mother. He even promised to give his mother a massage when they get home from the hospital.

Let's pray for that beautiful lady. I left the hospital a few hours ago and I am still thinking of her. May she recover soon to continue her job of grooming that boy. Jamaica certainly needs a man who has been properly groomed by that beautiful Jamaican woman.