Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer

Velma Elaine Thomas credits Steadman Fuller, a manager at Kingston Bookshop and a former teacher, who has continued to support her with her current career as a teacher.

Fuller was the teacher of Spanish who did not forget a little girl who dropped out of school because she became pregnant, but remained in contact and lived to see the day when she graduated from teachers' college.

Fuller was not only a source of encouragement, but when at age 36 - and with four children - Thomas told him that she wanted to become a teacher, he paid her school fees and boarding costs.

Born in Annotto Bay, St Mary, Thomas grew up with her grandmother, Laura Johnson. She recalls, "My dad was away. I did not know him. My mother also had a number of other kids.

Life in her grandmother's home was tough as the matriarch was almost always ill. "We did not have money. Grandmother was sickly and there was not much family support."

It all began in Islington

It was at school in Water Valley, Islington, where she attended the Islington All-Age, that Thomas met Fuller, who taught the grade eight class.

The Spanish teacher endeared himself to his class with his genuine interest in his students.

"We called him Tio, which is Spanish for uncle."

Thomas recalls, "I was in his grade eight class and one day I brought him my book. He took the book to the principal and said I belonged in a higher grade."

With Fuller's influence, Thomas was promoted to grade nine where she sat and passed the Grade Nine Achievement Test in 1975 to attend St Mary High School.

Fuller was full of encouragement. From the days of Islington All-Age, he would ply his protégé with books which she loved.

"He helped to foster my interest in reading and he fed me with more and more." When Thomas needed glasses (she became short-sighted) while attending St Mary, he also provided her with these.

But Thomas became pregnant in fourth form - an occurrence that she thought was to change her life negatively forever.

She dropped out of school and she later had three more children, confirming the opinion of many in her district and her family that she had no more interest in self-development.

Lost hope

She recalls, "I lost what I was holding on to. Most people thought that was the end of me."

But what her Spanish teacher had planted in her head - the thought that she was special and could achieve amazing things - would not leave her mind.

"I was 12 when I knew Tio in 1972. He was saying that I had potential and he would encourage me to do well in class.

"He was always encouraging me academically. Even when I was going to St Mary High and he was still living in Islington he would help me with my, Spanish homework.

"He was so upset when I got pregnant."

Fuller was disappointed, but while her family joined in a chorus of criticism, he continued to instil in his wayward pupil a desire to progress.

Even though it would be decades before she returned to school, Thomas insists, "I wanted to do something in my life based on the faith he had in my ability."

Often, looking in the mirror at home she would ask herself how she, who was so bright, had ended up nowhere while classmates who were slower had done well in life?

Going back to school

At age 36, Thomas decided that it was time to go back to school. She had no money, but her three older sons were grown and were well on their way to caring for themselves.

It took a lot of courage, but one day she took up the phone and uttered the words that would change her life forever. "I want to go to college."

The answer given by Fuller was simply, "It's about time."

Thomas had no CXC passes and so when she applied to college, none answered excepting Bethlehem Moravian Community College, which accepted her for the preliminary teachers' course.

Fuller promised to pay half the fees and Thomas tried to source the other half from relatives.

The answer from them, she said, was that she was wasting her time. "Nobody helped me."

Fuller ended up paying the other half and also boarding costs for Thomas and her daughter to live in St Elizabeth.

She explains, "I had to take my last child, who was a special child and needed to be with me."

In September 1994, Thomas entered Bethlehem Moravian where she proceeded to pass all her examinations and then worked at Bethlehem All-Age School for one term.

Her subsequent postings included Port Maria Primary and the Port Maria Library before she moved on to Shortwood Teachers' College for her diploma in education. Fuller was again supportive, providing incentive by promising to pay the first year's tuition, and advising her that after that point she should be able to get a student loan.

But in her second year at the college, Thomas could no longer find someone to keep her daughter and so had to leave campus and find a place for them both.

The move affected her student loan application and again, Fuller came to the rescue, paying for her final two years as well as rental costs for herself and her daughter.

Illness could not stop me

Thomas, who became ill in her final year, left the hospital without her doctor's permission, to sit her final examinations. The determined student completed her programme in linguistics and literature in 1999.

After college, Thomas secured employment at the School of Hope in Kingston before going back to St Mary to work at Islington High School for three years as teacher/librarian.

Started degree programme

Thomas left Islington in 2003 to begin the degree programme in social work at the Jamaica Theological Seminary.

Now employed as a special- needs teacher at the Stony Hill Place of Safety for Girls, she says that going to work and studying at the same time is a tough challenge but she is determined to persevere and so satisfy the faith that Fuller placed in her.

Her youngest daughter, Taj, is 22 and still in her care, but oldest son Omar who, 31, sings with the group Exhale.

Son Christopher, 28, lives in Miami and assists his father in running a business. Son Emile, 23, lives in Albany in St Mary.

Thomas will complete her degree programme in 2011 and aims to continue working with the Child Development Agency.

She says, "Working with the girls, I see many like me. I understand the journey that they need to take. I have an idea of what they have been through.

"I know what it is to do things the wrong way and have your family turn their backs. I know what it is for everything to seemingly go wrong with you and how it feels when there is nobody in your corner.

"I don't want to be just a teacher alone. I want to do things to impact other people's lives. Maybe I can't do it like Mr Fuller, but there are other things that people need, like encou-ragement. I went to college at age 36 and it was because I still remembered his words.

"Pregnancy at age 16 was a terrible time for me. I have never spoken about it before. I am putting closure on it because I want to move on to better things.

"I want to publicly thank Mr Steadman Fuller because I know he has helped countless people. I am eternally grateful and I do wish him all the best - he, his wife and his children," Thomas says.