Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer

Early years filled with hardship have not prevented Barbara Williams-Gordon, from Thompson Pen in St Catherine, from helping the less fortunate, now that her circumstances have changed in life.

Williams-Gordon, who is now the mother of four children, says those who showed her kindness in her younger years have left her determined to help others who now walk in the shoes she has set aside.

The shopkeeper's husband, 55-year-old Fitzroy Gordon, says grumpily that his 48-year-old wife is "basically a different individual (from himself). She goes out of her way to give away what she has. She does some things which I do not appreciate, but I just have to live with her because everybody can't be the same."

The extraordinary kindness of the matriarch has residents in Thompson Pen calling her the generous 'Miss Babs' and 'Moms', as she uses her own resources to make the lives of others a little easier.

Lisette Graham, a domestic worker in the area, says Williams-Gordon is her second mother.

"She help me out very well. Anything I ask her for she tries, and she helps my eight-year-old daughter to go to school. If I run short of money she helps. And (she) assists a lot of people around here too. Most times I am in need she is ready to help."

Too kind

Fitzroy Gordon states that his wife "is very hard-working and too kind. Sometimes the house is full of children. She takes things that she wants for herself and gives them away, doing without for herself.

"She takes people kids, feeds them, clothe them and sends them to school."

He adds, "I don't go to church with her again because we have to travel in two different vehicles as she takes up a load of children. She does not pass anybody on the road. No matter how late it is she takes them to church and school."

Williams-Gordon was the sixth of 10 children for her parents. Her mother provided for the children's upkeep by washing and cleaning for the extended family. One day, while washing an enormous amount of clothes for an aunt, Williams-Gordon's mother called her and said, "I want you to be a teacher. I don't want you to end up like this."

Her mother died when she was only 10 and soon Williams-Gordon was following in her mother's footsteps.

"I could wash, clean and iron like a big woman by the time I was 11. I knew how to iron a man's pants, using the iron and coal stove."

Trying to help with the support of her siblings, she would do any odd job available.

"I suffered immensely to survive. I would walk four miles to and from school without food or proper shoes. One day I fainted on arriving at school because I was really hungry."

Pauline Irons, the woman who lifted Williams-Gordon off the ground when she fainted, heard that she was an orphan and, Williams-Gordon remembers, "immediately offered to provide me with lunch for the rest of my time in school. It was a blessing."

Prior to this, while attending Tredegar All-Age, another teacher had offered her a place in her home, with the promise to Williams-Gordon's grandmother that she would send her to school.

But, instead, Barbara had found herself cleaning a five-bedroom house from morning until night. Her grandmother, with whom she was living prior to this, took her back home.

Entrance test

After leaving Tredegar All-Age, Barbara went to a training centre in De La Vega City where Everald Edwards decided, on the basis of her entrance test, that she needed to be in high school. He paid the first term's fee of $750 for her to go to Willowdene High, where she was to do very well and become head girl.

At age 18, Barbara entered the Youth Corps, leaving with a certificate for Most Outstanding Worker, but continued to struggle through a number of odd jobs until she started classes at West Indies College (now the Northern Caribbean University), where she pursued the secondary education programme.

"I had nobody to give me a pin. The men were saying I would have to go to bed with them. I had no help."

Williams-Gordon attended the college for three and a half years and left before completing the programme.

She managed to secure a job as a teacher and, on starting work, made sure to pay back those who helped her, and also helped others who needed her help.

For Pauline Irons, the teacher who had fed her at high school, she would send cases of sardine, which she loved, pay her helper and pay men to maintain her lawn. This has continued over the years. Recently, the only child of Ms Irons died and Barbara Williams-Gordon stepped forward to help with the funeral expenses.

"She calls me her daughter," Williams-Gordon says happily.

Having experienced the kindness of Mrs Irons, Mr Edwards and others, Williams-Gordon is determined to say yes to anyone who is truly in need.

"People in the community are calling me godmother and my husband is warning that I will give away everything," she says with a smile.

Williams-Gordon points out that when he does his monthly audit, nothing is short. "God blesses us so there are no losses."

Fitzroy Gordon admits that his wife takes very good care of her family in spite of her public mission.

" I can't complain about that. She is the one who manages the store too. She goes overboard. She gets up early in the morning, at least 4:40 a.m, sends off the children to school and although she is not feeling well (she has diabetes) she does not go to back to bed. She is around the yard cleaning, and if she has nothing to do she will open the shop before time.

"No matter what time she stops working at night she makes a meal for me. She never allows me to go to bed hungry. I am a funny (finicky) eater but she puts up with me."

According to Barbara Williams-Gordon, he (her husband) does not fully understand her giving ways, but she insists, "You have to reach out to people. Because of the kindness I experienced, I continue to extend the hand of friendship."