True Story - Who is the Baby's daddy

The Seventh Day Adventist (S.D.A) community in St. Vincent and the Grenadines held an Island wide convention at Victoria Park in Kingstown, on the small Caribbean multi-island state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Victoria Park is the country's main soccer stadium on the main Island. this stadium mainly host the clubs first and second division soccer league.

When I got to the park, I met up with, some of my friends from the Kingstown S.D.A church. Present was Glenroy Providence, a beloved and trusted friend, a man who goes the extra mile for his friends. Glenroy is a skilled Plumber and Electrician, there was Jerry Cuffy, my little brother, who had just completed his secondary education and found employment with Glenroy, while he make up his mind on what he wanted to do, their was my good friend: Leroy Richardson AKA Tom. Tom is also a beloved and trusted friend. Tom and I often sit for hours in discussion, addressing many subject, Tom and I are like minds; and there was Tom's wife Rosie, my then partner in crime. This group was a part of the big happy family that were present when I arrived at the convention; a part of the family I had at the S.D.A church in Kingstown.

While I was greeting my friends who had assembled in the vicinity of the main gate at the sporting facility, I noticed, Rosie was holding a young baby. Rosie's maternal instinct was sharp as a result she could always be seen, with other people's babies. While I greeted my other friends, I turn to Rosie and I said in the Vincentian dialect: "Rosie, way yo na go mek yo own, every time I turn, yo wit some body Chile" (Rosie you should make another child, each time I see you, you are caring for someone else's child) we all laugh and that round of laughter marked the official breaking of the ice among friends. That seamlessly joke, was an indication that it was going to be a day of clean fun, lots of laughter that will climax with a cook at someone's home.

After the good laugh has die down, Rosie said, to me, this is not a stranger baby, this is my sister Jemma's baby. I said surprisingly: I did not know Jemma was pregnant. I was shocked at this news, for Jemma and I had started a relationship some months earlier; unfortunately, for the continuation for the relationship, she suddenly disappeared into thin air. At that time cell phone was not popular. I called Jemma's home many times; however, she was never at home to take the call, at lease that was what I was told. I visited her home to speak to her and each time I went by Jemma's home, her siblings who I were friends with, often told me, she was not at home.

I knew something was amiss, it was impossible for Jemma to disappeared on so small an island without her disappearance making the news, as a missing person or even making the public service announcement. I concluded that Jemma did not want to continue in the relationship with me, and less, I be considered a stalker; I stopped calling and I stop going by to see her. The young lady went through a lot of work to avoid running into me on the streets and she was successful at it.

I am not one who has a big interest in other people's babies, because I did not have the parental eyes as yet and therefore; I failed to see the beauty in babies that most people saw. As a result, I was often forced to lie to make the parent feel good; and I don't like lying. At that time of my life, my parental eyes were dull. I was still shock by the news, I asked Rosie when was that child born, she told me the date, and I did the quick math in my head. Rosie looking into my eyes saw the wheels of my mind turning over in my head; Then I said to Rosie in a commanding tone of voice, "let me see the child!" immediately Rosie became defensive, turn the child away from me and said, why do you want to see the girl's child.

I insisted and we had a little friendly struggle, Rosie preventing me from seeing the baby and I insisting on seeing the baby. It was then Tom, Rosie's husband intervened; he say "Rosie, you let all body, even strangers see, hold and play with the child, why you don't want Palmer to see the child? Let the man see the child!" Tom instructed, Rose reply to her husband, "Tom you know what Palmer gives already" she was speaking about my habit of heckling people, making jokes out of serious things. Rosie knew it was not the place, the time or the subject to get me joking about the baby and its birth. The baby's mother did not tell her family who the baby's father was. So for Rosie this was a sensitive matter.

Upon her husband's council, Rosie handed over the baby to me, when I took that baby into my arms, I immediately felt a deep connection to the baby that lay in my arms. I looked at the child with searching eyes, and I saw myself in the baby that looked back at me, with searching eyes also. As if to be saying who is this strange man, whom I am seeing for the first time, who make me feel so safe and secure.

This baby was beautiful child; at that stage, of my life, I could quickly see the beauty in babies born to my siblings, and it matters not what others opinion about their children were. On that day, I held in my hand and I looked upon the face of so beautiful a little baby. The timeline of the birth of this child matched perfectly the timeline of that period of time, I was involved in a relationship, with the baby's mother. All I knew was, this was no coincidence.

I forgot where I was, as a matter of fact, I did not care I was in a church setting, and the service was going on; Immediately and unashamed I declared: "Rosie this is my child!" I attracted the attention and to the embarrassment of some of the church people around. My admission to being the unmarred father of a new born baby, was a public admission of fornication; an offense worthy of being thrown out of the church (Dis-fellowship). This outrageous declaration put Rosie on the defensive. As a result Rosemarie, fire back by saying, If is baby you want, why don'y you go, find a woman, and make a baby.

The others including Rosie laughed off the awkward encounter as one of my ruses, however, I was not joking around. Rose was totally unaware of the relationship I had with her younger sister and she thought I was joking also. However, claiming to be the baby's daddy was something Rosie could play along with. But Rosie's husband Tom, who also laughed the whole incident off, realized I was not Joking; approached me about the matter later.

All of my renewed efforts to see and speak to Jemma was unsuccessful. Now it was not about my disappointment and or my feelings, and it was not about Jemma's feelings either; now, their was an innocent child that was the central part of the picture and we must put our petty feelings aside and make as our priority, the welfare of this new born child; thus forget about our personal feelings and opinion.

One day I was at Daddy Thomas' shop, which was located on Hospital Road. The Hospital Road; marked the beginning or the started of the Road to Leeward. Daddy's shop was on opposite side of the hospital, the narrow street immediately in front of the main entrance of the Kingstown General Hospital, which was later renamed the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital; separated the ever popular shop from the health facility. While there, I glimpsed someone, out of my peripheral vision; I noticed the person made a sharp about turn and began to briskly walk back into the Accident and Emergency section if the Hospital. I quickly turned to see who the person was. It was then I saw Jemma trying desperately to avoid me, by running in the direction from which she was coming.

I wanted her to know that I saw her, and she is not going to avoid me this easily. So I shouted her name using the power of my projected voice; there were a lot of questions I need answer for. The primary of which was, who was the father of the child she recently give birth too. I wanted the evasive young lady to know that this time around, she was not getting away without answering a few questions, and I wanted the answers now! not tomorrow, not next week but now! I immediately made my way onto the hospital premises, and over to where Jemma was. On inquiry, I was told; Jemma was sick and she came to the A&E for medical help.

I then said to her, I did not know you recently had a child; she said yes, I have a little girl. By this time the baby was about three or four months old. without wasting any time, I got straight to the point and I asked her who is the father of the little girl. She looked at me confused and embarrassed, not expecting the question to be the focal point of our meeting after just over a year of not seeing each other. Jemma said "Palmer you are the father of my daughter." I was not shocked and I was not surprised at her answer. I smile at her to put her at ease. I can see the stress she was under. So why did you avoided me all this time and why you did not let me know you were pregnant? I asked, I wanted answers.

Jemma looker at me and she said, "how would it have looked, after that short time in relationship with you, I just declared to you that I am pregnant and you are the baby's father". she pause for a brief moment, to give me some time to think, upset at the situation she had been trapped in she continued; "I knew the first thing you were going to say was; the child was not your, I was pregnant before we started talking and I had sex with you because I wanted to give you a 6 for a 9 (I wanted you to father another man's child)." she pause and looked for some type of reaction from me; like you were wrong, I would not have said that. But the truth that fell from her lips made me num. Then she broke the silence once again, and said: "I could not have deal with that type of stress. So I took it upon myself to avoid the stress, by ending the relationship and deal with the pregnancy and the baby on my own; and that was what I did."

After listening carefully to what Jemma said, I wanted to say you were wrong Jemma, to smooth it over. But the only thing that would have done was to make me look like the good guy and give the stressed out mother, the impression that she made the wrong decision.

This was a serious issue and I could not find it within me to lie to the mother of my child. However, after honestly searched my heart; I honestly could not have taken the easy way out, not even to make myself look good. I looked at Jemma and I said to her Jemma, you are correct, under the circumstances I would have believed that was the case.

Then Jemma said Palmer if you have doubts you can do a paternity test to verify. I said Jemma, I do not need a paternity test to know the baby is my child. As soon as, I held her in my arms, I knew she is my daughter. Right there and then Jemma and I worked out how we were going to proceed from there and what was my responsibilities to my daughter. I was happy to be a part of the child's life and I wanted to play a significant role in her life. On hindsight, I did not live up to my potential as a father. I truly fell short.

Even if I have not been the best father that Jemisha deserved, she has always been wonderful daughter. We were connected, so much so that whatever or whenever, or if I tell Jemisha she can jump and touch the moon, she always does. It may not happen in her first try, but bet your last dollar, that she will never stop trying until she touched the moon. Any time her mother and or Jemisha's Grand mother had a concern with her, one conversations from me was all that was needed to have her reformed her ways. I will forever love Jemisha. Her strength, determination, and fighting spirit always reminds me of me

True Story: Who Delivered the baby!

I had only been a police officer for less than five years yet it seems like more than twenty years. I thought that my experiences were the norms. However, I have listened to my colleagues stories, but they were nothing compare to what I have experienced and had encountered.

May be it’s a matter of timing, I was just never their when they were telling the real adventurous stories. I never feel the need to share my stories with family, friends and or colleagues, at the time, to me these were stories, these were serious incident with real people whose life were seriously affected. However, What I knew was; there were the unseen hands of Yah, leading and protecting me at every turn in my life.

On this particular day, I was out on duty ounce again, and what has become the norm, I was going solo. I was leaving the capital Kingstown, driving on the windward side of the island. I decided to take a shorter road to my destination, however, and unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and I ended up in an area I was totally unfamiliar with.

I always prided myself for knowing the main land St. Vincent like the back of my hand. This was so because of the many exchange we were involved in as children, exchanges my sister and I were a part of whilst on Summer break, spending a week or two with a family and family in the rural areas, who had children our age, after which, that child came to our home for the same amount of time. There was also the frequent road trips with our father; which he normally organized on Sundays, to various parts of the island, to visit his friends; and there was my stint working with the Vector Controlled Unit, which took me into the nooks and cranny of the Island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

However, on this day, I was lost, not in the deep rural interior of the island, but in the suburbs of one of St. Vincent's town. I was lost in the suburbs of the town of Calliaqua. How was this even possible, there were somewhere, so close to my home that I did not know about? I came upon a fork in the road, and I had to make a decision.

The road was narrow, un-kept and un-maintained. In some areas the asphalt surface was completely destroyed. The grassy hedges were so over grown, that it extended into the road; making the narrow road even narrower. It was a beautiful sunny day; but the tall trees acted like a canopy that blocked out the sunlight from illuminating the road below. This area had the same spooky appearance, and reminded me of that area between Dorchester Hill and Queen’s Drive where Yolande Weeks was brutally murdered, this murder happened when I was still a child, and it sent shock-waves throughout the entire island. I knew Yolande very well, her brothers and I were friends as children attending the Kingstown Prep School.

While writing this piece it make me realize, that I know who killed Yolande weeks so many years ago. This is so because sometime later, a friend brought the incident to my attention and asked me if I will like to see where Yolande was killed? I was curious and I consented to go to that location. My friend began to explain to me in great details, how the incident happened. From the level and the type of resistance the frighten child put up, to her efforts to escape and the murderer efforts to recapture her and how she actually met her end. From where the car was parked, to where they got out of the car, where the killer intercepted her and where her body lay after she lay dead in the cold damp street. all the information were precise in their details.

The area where Yolande Weeks was brutally murdered was not illuminated by the sun light in the day, because of the topography and the denseness of the vegetation in that area. When I asked him how you knew all that details about that murder he said, I heard about it. I was about seventeen year’s old and very naive, at the time; as result, I took his explanation as his truth. I was impressed by the level of his knowledge about the whole incident. At one time he blamed Yolande for her death and referred to her as bad and of loving too much man. This made him sound like one who was jealously in love with beautiful young girl. For Yolande was every thing but promiscuous, she was happy-go-luckily, friendly young girl; who was kind to all regardless of their social or other status.

I can see if this guy had ever interacted with her, as he said he had, when he experienced Yolande kindness and appreciation to the customers who patronized her father's business, how someone like him can easily confused her kindness for romantic love. For my friend did not have the love of his or a mother growing up. On hind sight, it is only someone who had witness the incident or someone who actually committed the murder could have known the level of details this fellow had access to. Because of the darkness that engulfed the area in the day a witness could not seen such intricate details in the night when the incident took place.

I looked around for someone to provide me with a way out of this deserted place. There were a few wooden houses sprinkled on the hillside, these houses did not have electricity and, there were no phone either. At this period in the worlds history, in the Mid-nineties (1990s) the cell phone was only a make believe apparatus for ordinary people; they had appeared in only a few movies; and those cellular phone, were as big as the receivers of a domestic phone.

Now; I had a choice to make, I could choose to go up the steep mountain road, or to stay on the flat and continue along the path. I could not turn back, because I has changed road several times, trying to find my way out of my predicament and therefore I was unable to effectively retrace my movement back. I decided on taking the steep mountain road, I drove for a while then, I thought to myself, this road may lead to a dead end in the mountains.

As a result, I turned the marked police vehicle around and headed down the hill from whence I came. When I reach to the fork in the road I decided to take option number two. Over powered by anxiety, I drove for a little while; and I did not see any sign of civilization. As a result of the anxiety, which got the better of me, I took the decision to once again turn the vehicle around, and I decide to go up the steep mountain road once again. This time around, I made a decision to drive until I get out of this place or until I reach a dead end. At lease this way, I will eliminate one road from my choices.

It was about 10:30 am, all of the houses were locked, there was no one around, from whom I could have solicited direction. If there were children living in this area, they were all in school and their parents were all at work. So I took my time and I carefully maneuver the vehicle along the deplorable narrow road that was overrun by vegetation. When I got to the very top of the hill, I noticed the road became level and winding. I could tell that this road never had a pave surface.

This road was one of the many roads that was excavated to accommodate the settlement of the area and abandoned. I noticed, there was a load of 3/8 quarry stone on the side of the road. By the presence of the stone, I knew civilization was close, because, the trucks that bring the stones to this location could not make it safely up that narrow, winding road.

While I was driving along feeling much better by the way things were now progressing, I noticed there was a woman trying to make her way up a dirt embankment, from a house that was about thirty feet below the flat, unpaved, dirt road. It look like she may have fallen and had hurt herself.

When I reach to where the woman was dragging herself up the track that was cut out in the embankment, on her buttocks, I got out of the police vehicle and I went to find our what was the matter with her, to see if there was anything I can do and if she needed my help. This was the first person I saw since I made the wrong turn and find myself chapped in this maze.

The pain she was experiencing was visible on her face, at times she bit her bottom lip, exposing the top row of her pearly white teeth, with a somewhat contorted stiff upper lip. The woman who was still on the ground, who had a white sheet, in her hand was breathing through her mouth, she was taking quick, shallow breaths; a sign of the magnitude of pain the woman was experiencing.

I was a police officer, not a doctor, a police officer was the last person a person in this woman's condition wanted to see, but she was stuck with me. It was obvious this lady needed medical help, and I had no medical training. However when she saw me she was relief.

I asked the lady what was wrong, she said I am pregnant and I am in labor. I have seen police officers delivering babies on TV and in the movies, Hollywood make it look like; delivering babies were routine police duties. Hollywood makes this procedure look so easy and cool, that I always hope to be place in such a situation. Now I was smack dab in the middle of such a situation, with the opportunity to prove myself, and even get this thing done better than the actors did on TV and in the movies. And then; the dreaded reality hit me. Mr. Ronald Christopher the police training commandant forgot to teach the subject in baby delivery in the field! It was now, I realized that the sudden look of relief, the soon to be mother had upon seeing me, was the fact that she too had seen police officers on TV and in the movies successfully delivered babies, and she was happy to see the police midwife, who God had sent to save her from the torment and to safely deliver her baby.

I quickly obtained our location from the lady, I use the police radio and I called Police headquarters, I informed them of where I was and the current state of affairs and I asked them to send an ambulance to my location immediately. I was hoping that the ambulance arrived before the baby decided to make its entrance into this world. The liquid that soaked the dress, the lady was wearing was a sign that her water had broken, I did not know how long it took after the water had broken, for the baby to make its entrance into this world. All I knew, it is a sure sign that the baby is just about ready to make its grand entrance into the world.

I kept an eye out for the ambulance but the ambulance will not come. Then the lady said it feel like the baby is coming. Deep inside I was panicking but I could not let the woman in distress know I was panicking. I had to hold it together. Then she said; officer, take a look and see if the baby is coming.

I lifted up the lady's dress and I took a look at her vagina, I saw the top of the baby head, the wet, black, curly hair was visible. I immediately reported what I saw to the distressed mother. I encouraged her to hold on, for the ambulance will be here soon. I was trying to stop her from doing anything to aggravate the situation before the ambulance arrived.

And then like clockwork, the lady started blowing, breathing heavy through her mouth and pushing, I try to stop her from pushing by tell her to hold on the ambulance is on its way, its seems like the lady lost all rational, and bodily control, she began blowing, breathing heavily, and forcing (pushing). I was convinced that it was completely out of the woman's control. It was time for the baby to come and all she could have done, was to do all in her power to accommodate the process, which was breath heavy through her mouth, blow and push.

Then I saw the head made its way out of the birth channel, after which the shoulder, the lady was still groaning, pushing and blowing. Then there was some sudden, quick movement on the baby's part. Now the baby was making a steady move; the baby was coming out of the lady vagina in the same way toothpaste comes out of the tube when one squeeze the tooth paste out of the tube. If I did not act now and act quickly, with the speed at which the baby was coming, the baby was going to pop out of his mother vagina and fall onto the muddy ground.

It was clear this baby was not playing by my rules, and it did not care one hoot about my opinion, my fears, my concerns, this was the baby's time to be born and he did not care what I thought about it. Stooping in front of the expectant mother, I stretched my hand up to where the sheet was, yanked the clean, white sheet out of the distressed mother hand, quickly spread the sheet over both of my open hands, I place my hands in front and below the woman's vagina just then the baby slipped out, of the vagina and landed safely onto my sheet clad hand.

The mother was relief, all of the commotion suddenly ended. There was no heavy breathing, no blowing, no pushing. My worries should have been over, but now, my worries began to grow. This one was even, bigger than the problem I had with dealing with the delivery of the child. For now there is the issue of severing and tying the navel string of the baby. Was this a part of the package of delivering a child in the field, I asked myself. On TV, this always seems to be an urgent matter that need to be dealt with immediately. I still had the beautiful baby in my hand, as I contemplate what to do. I did not have the right equipment to facilitate this surgical procedure. I did not want to do anything to endanger the life of child or the child's mother. if I did all the worry and my efforts would have been a waste.

And then I saw the ambulance coming, I was relief, I then handed the baby to its mother, informed her that the ambulance was in sight, told her lets the people, on the ambulance handle it from here. I could not waite to get home to tell my big sister Clear the Nurse, what happened. I was glad to hand over the mother and the child to the ambulance personnel. thank to Yah there was a nurse on the ambulance. I assisted the ambulance operator in getting the patient on board; the lady asked my name and then we path ways.