The screams erupting from her Manchester Mansion assaulted the ear drums of surrounding neighbours.
But the 93-year-old occupant was not in agony although phantom pains are known to frequently wrack her body and reduce her to bitter tears unbecoming of a woman of her poise and dignity.
Body parts that she no longer has, as a double amputee, are attacked; Feet, shin bones, toes. So, she is confined to a wheelchair which has not succeeded in keeping her still nor keeping her at home.
(It does not matter to her that the vehicle assigned to her and a former Premier by the state was, shamelessly, withdrawn, after his demise, in what statesmen (she a member of that fraternity) would call a ‘pocketed approval.’).
The reason for the rumpus at the mansion was that the ubiquitous, sports enthusiast and BVI cultural icon, Eileene L Parsons, was celebrating the victory of ‘Ghostinyou,’ a BVI horse, owned by her cousin, Lesmore Smith, which ran away with the Governor’s cup on St Thomas during their carnival races.
She called as many people as she could, friend and foe alike, in her state of euphoria. She even admitted to thinking of Elton John’s “We are the Champions.”
Of course, Johnny Walker was on hand. It could never, for her, be called a celebration without him.
She doubled down and invited Lesmore to the mansion to continue those celebrations. He could not refuse; For in her words: “When blood calls, blood answers.”
Later, a son of the soil in the diaspora explained, in a treatise, that horse racing for BVI people engenders national pride. He suggests that it strips away political differences; Removes personal animosity; Fuses BVI people, including residents, of all ages; Bridges racial and ethnic divides:
It is worth the read.
Ms Parsons, who is almost reckless in her optimism about life, personalizes the words of an AGT singer (Nightbird) who, in battling cancer with a 2% chance of survival (she lost) stated that ‘’you can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.”
At least three fifths of the BVI Cabinet witnessed, with their own eyes, the dramatic and hair-raising upset pulled off by ‘Ghostinyou’ as horse and owner, made all BVI proud.
Mother Goose told us, to disbelief, that ‘a cow jumped over the moon.’ But we saw, with our own eyes, ‘Ghostinyou’ fly, not run, to victory, and our hearts burst with pride.
But we were not proud to hear that overtures were being made to the USVI Governor to hold our BVIs August Tuesday races on his track.
After all, Ms Parsons, as a former Minister for Sports, spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars to build a state-of-the-art racetrack which BVI has been using since 1998.
A dispute with the family that owns a portion of the land has all but denied the taxpayers their investment.
The answer cannot be to duplicate what we already have or for $400M to be out begging its neighbour, on bent knees, for a handout.
But we have leaders and they will get this right. We simply cannot write off millions of taxpayers’ dollars over pusillanimous behaviour.
And we will have our races. It is a question of national pride which is a precursor to nation building. And supporting that pride, in this instance, does not call for a ‘Nicodemus’ visit to the UN.
Perhaps, it does not even call for Fridays.
Happy Friday!