Counting down to 50 years of Independence are returning residents Heather and Renixton Reid who, come September 21, will be celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss.

SO contributor Emma Sharp Dalton-Brown catches up with the couple hours before their weekly ‘Club’ — Clarendon Association of Returning Residents meeting…

Heather and Renixton Reid left Clarendon (a place ESDB holds close to her heart as she grew up in Goshen, near Mocho), in 1961, always praying they’d be able to return one day. Their dream came true 35 years later, in 1996, and life could not be sweeter for this charming couple.

Born in Manchester on December 26, 1940, Heather Oates grew up in Four Paths, Clarendon. In her early adult life, she worked as a cashier at the bakery in Four Paths, and devoted much of her time to social development commissions and training at a local community centre. Her husband-to-be, Renixton Reid, who was born in Clarendon on December 30, 1937, grew up close by, near the district of Mocho. His first profession was in carpentry, but after breaking his hand, he went on to be a shoemaker in May Pen. The two met in May Pen square in 1960, fell in love, and the rest as they say is history.

In April 1961, due to difficult times, Renixton decided to move to Bristol, England, to seek a better life. The Reids needed to be able to educate their child, and support a potential growing family. In the early sixties, this was simply not feasible for them in Jamaica. Heather followed five months later, and after exactly a year, in September 1962, they made their union official and tied the knot. By this time, Renixton was retraining in motor vehicle engineering, working in the days and going to school at night. Between 1964 and 1968, the couple had three children, Claudette, Michael and Heather. “Things were hard living in Bristol,” Renixton tells SO, “but we survived. We had no regrets leaving Jamaica, as things would have been harder there. We were able to support our children, and the education in Bristol was very good. In Jamaica, I would not have had the flexibility of working and going to school myself.”.

This dynamic duo always had in the back of their minds that one day they’d return home to enjoy the sunshine of Jamaica’s people and skies. “Ever since we went there,” Heather confirms, “we knew we were coming back. That’s what kept us going. We were really staying in Bristol for the kids.” Sure enough, Renixton took retirement in 1996, and the couple returned home and moved straight into a house in Osbourne Store, Clarendon, which Reid’s sister and nephew had been building for them.

Of course, it was not easy for Heather to leave her children, even though they were now adults. (Three live in England — their son is in the motor trade, their daughters work for Royal Bank of Scotland and British Telecom.; the eldest is in Canada working for the Government.) It took her about a year to settle into life in the tropics again. “I shed a lot of tears, but Ren took only two months to be really happy,” she says, laughing. “And although living here can have its drawbacks,” she adds, “we love the freedom of being able to put on jeans and a T-shirt and walk through May Pen market on a Friday and revel in the sunshine. Jamaicans are also one of the kindest and most humble people in the world. Your neighbours will bring you oranges and coconuts, and when they ask you if you want ackee, they’ll send you a whole bag. I can also get up today, and if I don’t have gas or electricity, still cook dinner by making up a fire outside. We can make things work here, and make things better,” she reflects.

The Reids are a big part of the Clarendon Association of Returning Residents (they call it The Club) on Love Lane in Four Paths, going there twice a week. “We spend all day there socialising. We cook, play dominoes, do embroidery, chat about Jamaican politics and other topics. We may reminisce about days back in the UK as well. That’s where we are heading today,” she informs. However, the Reids are “not living in little England”, Heather Reid insists, “but living around Jamaicans. My people, head to toe. The Club is in my home district, and people still pass and call me Miss Tuts!”

The Reids very much enjoy being back on The Rock, and the remaining days of the week are spent doing housework, shopping, paying bills, going to the market, travelling into the hills on a Saturday to visit friends, and attending church on Sundays. They both love dominoes. “On Sunday nights I play dominoes with a group of men from my family. It’s usually them, a lady friend of mine, and me,” says Heather. Her husband likes to play dominoes with his friends, as well, while enjoying a Red Stripe beer or two, and he may often be seen playing a word search game, and on occasion dabbling in his garden, of which he is most delighted!

The vibrant couple have toured Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean extensively, and assert that “none of the Caribbean islands are like Jamaica. Our unique thing is the kindness, friendliness and warmth. Even if people have no money, they are loving. In the country especially, everyone looks after everyone, and there are even places where people live with no grilles on their doors or windows”, Heather brags. One of the only pitfalls to their regular countrywide trips is the roads! While they used to venture to Jackson Bay, in South Clarendon, every month for a cook-out with friends, the deteriorated road has made that a near impossibility now. “But that water is so sweet, and the sand is white and pretty,” Heather gushes. Milk River Mineral Spa was also a regular venture for lunch and a bath, but again, the road has deemed this too difficult. They are still, however, able to make it to Front Hill in St Elizabeth, Reggae Beach and Turtle Beach, and particularly love visiting Portland because it is a “very beautiful parish”, and St Elizabeth, “because it is a very clean parish”.

Life seems almost too good to be true for the Reids, but they attest that the key to their freedom and happiness was to make the most of moving home. “It is a better quality of life than in England, especially at our age. People I have known there for 40 years only go outside in the summer. They have nowhere to go, except the shops and the theatre. Then they return home and sit behind the net curtains. They can only go out for three months of the year, due to the cold,” she says sadly.

The Reids are not naive about the hardships here, but “Life in Jamaica is like a jigsaw puzzle. You find a little corner and you fit yourself into it,” she declares. “It used to take us at least an hour to warm our feet when we got home in Bristol,” she remembers, “but now we sit on our verandah here, eating gungo peas soup or a bowl of porridge, and that’s all behind us. We can only thank God for bringing us back. Without his will, we would not have done it.”

At the end of this year, Renixton Reid will turn 75, and he is thrilled to be alive at his age. “Age is a blessing and an honour,” he holds. To have got this far in life, achieved all that they have together, raising and educating their family, and then returning as residents to their beloved Jamaica, they could truly ask for no more, and they do urge fellow Jamaicans abroad to consider doing the same before it’s too late. Life simply is so sweet here.