Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson (left) has a warm smile for her daughter Seya Wilson. Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

Being a mother is never easy, but balancing motherhood and an active public life can be an even more daunting task.

Fresh out of university, Minister of Education Maxine Henry-Wilson started her career.

Two years later, she began working for the People's National Party (PNP) and was appointed senator in 1980. In 1983, she left for the United States to pursue postgraduate studies.

Her daughter, Seya Wilson, entered the world in 1989 while Minister Henry-Wilson was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies.

Mrs. Henry-Wilson was reluctant to return to active public life after seeing how the family life of other politicians had been affected.

However, in 1992, on the request of the late Prime Minister Michael Manley, she returned to politics.

Seya's quiet life then became filled with political events. Her earliest memory of her mother being an important person was when she was five years old.

Determined to stay close to her daughter, Mrs. Henry-Wilson devoted her early mornings to Seya. "I always dropped her to school personally. It was an uninterrupted period for us to talk even though sometimes calls from talk shows would come in," Minister Henry-Wilson revealed.