The 2008 Governor General's Achievement Awardee for St Thomas, Verona O'Connor (centre), is congratulated by Lady Hall (right) after receiving the award at King's House, while Custos of St Thomas, Marcia Bennett, shares the moment. - JIS photo

Verona O'Connor has devoted her life to improving the conditions of residents of St Thomas.

As a community volunteer and parish organiser for the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC), until her retirement in 2007, the 62-year-old willingly imparted her skills through workshops in the culinary techniques, arts and craft, floral arrangement and other life skills to benefit elderly residents and the young.

Her hard work has been duly noted and, over the years, she has received many honours, including the prestigious Governor General's Achievement Award (GGAA) for St Thomas in 2008.

The award recognises persons who have emerged from modest circumstances and have attained success and are actively involved in community activities.

"I started crying because sometimes you do not realise that people will look on and see what you are doing but you just do it as part of your system. Something is there to be done, you have the motivation and you just do it," O'Connor said in reaction to the award.

She said she was not looking for an award and had to be reminded twice to send her profile to the GGAA's committee.

Struggle and triumph

O'Connor's life has been one of struggle and triumph, having overcome poverty to qualify as a teacher, nurse, social worker and gerontologist, who volunteers her time and talents to those less fortunate.

Born in Belfield, St Catherine, in 1942, O'Connor was raised by a single mother who, she said, was "poor, but determined and willing".

She remembered that the meagre funds the family had were used up when her mother became sick but the community came to their aid with the church and school that she attended offering support.

Determined to succeed despite her circumstances, and with the assistance of positive role models, she successfully completed the First, Second and Third Jamaica Local Examinations by age 17. She then started a class for basic school students while awaiting a teaching job.

She served as a pre-trained teacher from 1965 to 1969 at several all-age schools in St Catherine and later attended nursing school. In 1969, she completed a midwifery course at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, and was assigned to work at the then Isaac Barrant Hospital in St Thomas.

Later, she was transferred to the Princess Margaret Hospital in the parish where she worked as a registered midwife.

She also taught at the Trinityville Secondary School and was a field educator in the Child Services Division of the then Ministry of Youth.

Armed with qualifications in a variety of fields, O'Connor, who married Kenneth in 1966, began working for the NCSC in 1988 where she remained until retirement. She said she enjoyed every minute of the experience.

"It was very rewarding in terms of the experience because I did educational programmes and dealt with people from different strata of life," she said.

"I have always had a passion for older persons because they were there for me when I was young," she said.

"From the moment I see that the seniors have the ability to go forward, I help to stimulate their interest. It is not just seniors coming to meetings and sitting down and you giving them information, you get them doing things that you know they can do."

Good rapport

Beverly Taylor, NCSC executive director, 'Miss Ver', as she is fondly known, was a "pleasant, energetic and cooperative team player" during her period with the NCSC.

"She always maintained a good rapport with senior citizens and had the remarkable ability to bring out the best in those with whom she interacted," Taylor added

It was O'Connor, she noted, who introduced the senior citizens' pageant, the senior citizens' quiz and the senior computer-training programme.

"Miss Ver injected a lot of energy into the art, craft, culinary art and horticulture activities and took the skills training programmes to a higher level," she also pointed out.

The former NCSC parish organiser, who has a bubbly personality and ready smile, also started an intergenerational programme in St Thomas, aimed at bridging the generation gap and to get more young persons interact and appreciate senior citizens.

Gerontology

To better serve the older residents of the parish, she gained a postgraduate diploma in gerontology and completed courses, seminars and workshops on family life, health, skills training, public speaking and home economics.

But O'Connor's work has not been limited to seniors, as she assisted a group of young men from Bamboo Lane in Duhaney Pen, who often sat on the corner, to start an agricultural project. She said a relative of one of the young men donated a piece of land for the project.

"Within a week, they cleared the land and I got the agriculturist to come in and we fenced it off, then started ploughing it up. They had water nearby and got seeds and they started," she recalled.

Even though she is retired, O'Conner continues to serve her community through the Senior Citizens' Club of the Morant Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The members visit shut-ins, the sick and primary schools to have devotion with the students.

She also believes strongly in lifelong learning and recently completed a three-week course in drug education, counselling and healthy-lifestyle training with the National Council on Drug Abuse.