Carmen Grey Scharschmidt (second right) with daughters Natesha and Latoya who is holding baby Anthony. In Duncans, Trelawny, and environs, people talk about Ms. Scharschmidt, better known as Miss G, with reverence. However, most are upset that she's being forced to retire after 28 years as a cleaner at the Duncans Library with little pension because she is a part-time worker. - Dennis Coke IT'S 12:30 on a Thursday afternoon. A little boy, no more than eight years old starts up the steps towards the Duncans Branch Library. His feet rubbing against the wooden layers make an annoying noise. He enters the door. "Good afternoon," he says. "I want to return this book."
The librarian pleasantly returns the greeting and takes the book from him.
"Miss G is here, Miss?" he asks.
Carmen Grey Scharschmidt, more affectionately called Miss G, has been a regular face at the library for 28 years.
"Most people once they say library Miss G comes to mind. She famous yuh know. Once you mention the Duncans Branch library it's just Miss G. They attach the library to her name," explains library assistant Monica Blake.
Miss G, a cleaner, does not work on a Thursday and soon she will no longer be at the library because she's being forced to retire.
We became interested in Miss G after receiving a poignant letter from her youngest daughter, Suzette, who wrote, in part:
"This woman has watched over almost three decades of children coming in and out of the library system. She has nursed, helped with research and has gained the respect of a lot of potential leaders of this country.
"If she were not so set in her ways she could have been chief librarian. Her children grew up in the library service, won awards at every Summer Programme.
"Often her children begged her to give notice, as it is simply unreasonable to be receiving that kind of salary ($743 fortnightly), but she wouldn't hear of it, as she is very devoted to the system. The credit union manager knows her well as she virtually lived there in order to send her children to school and, believe me, she is still paying back for those loans on that salary.
"...she has now arrived at the age of retirement, and the library service tells her that (after) 28 years she will not be receiving much of redundancy payment..."
So we went looking for Miss G.
Travelling from Duncans up to Spicy Hill finding Miss G was not a hard task. Apart from good directions, everyone knew the way to Miss G's house.
"Oh Miss G," said one young man in his twenties. "She a one good woman yuh know miss, mi nuh want fi nuttin an she nuh help."
Miss G is also well known because she is the treasurer for the Spicy Hill Basic School, an active member of the Citizens Association and Neighbourhood Watch, as well as a member of the local Baptist church.
STARTED AT $29 A FORTNIGHT
We came upon a scrappy looking little house at the side of a hill.
"Come in, come in," says a fine voice.
Inside a tall and slender woman with greying hair greeted us. The furniture was scanty, the walls black from the constant cooking near the living room and the floor plain. Miss G invites us to sit on a cozy chair as she relates how she began working at the Duncans library as an office cleaner in 1973 when her fortnightly salary was $29. Still, she managed to send her eight children to school.
"God knows how I get by mi dear chil', I can't even tell yu because mi husband leave mi in 1975, sometimes mi get mi pay and throw pardna and when mi get a draw mi pay school fee. Sometimes relatives, especially mi madda will help mi wid clothes and so," she says hanging her head.
She's still struggling, she says, with one child still in school, a partner of $300 a week and helping to send her grandchildren to school.
Despite the prospect of little in the way of pension (because she has been a part-time worker with hours from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) Miss G says she's looking forward to the future and is putting her "faith and trust in God (who) bring mi this far and it can carry mi ever further".
In the meantime, people in Ducans, Spicy Hill and environs talk about the library cleaner with reverence. Twenty-two-year-old Kishan Bailey is one of the many children in the area Miss G raised. "Miss G grow mi from I was in the belly, she was touching the belly when I was in there, she has mothered me like I can't fully explain," he says.
