Pearl George: mothering a community

“If people would just take the time to show love and respect for each other, all the negative things that we see happening today in our society will soon disappear.”

This is the sentiment expressed by Pearl George, mother of eight, who grew up with her siblings in humble conditions. She never went to school but worked in the family garden as a child. Her mother taught her to bake and cook as well, and she also got the opportunity to learn more about cooking from older women in the community. This skill eventually led to George landing a job as a head cook at a Crown Point hotel, where she worked until she retired.

She and her husband, Boxhill George, sent all their children to school.

“As a child growing up in Crown Point, life for me was very, very tough. Our parents were so poor they could not afford to buy our school books and uniforms for us to go to school, so as a result we never went to school. From very early in life they would take my siblings and I with them to work in the garden where we worked digging potato banks to plant potatoes as well as any other work that needed to be done. We also had to help take care of all the animals – sheep, goats, cows.

“But my mother also taught me from very early, how to bake and how to cook. I also learnt to cook from the elder ladies in the community who were the village cooks at the time, these were the women who would cook at big functions – weddings, christenings and wakes. Whenever they would be cooking for an event, they would take me along with them and they would show me how to cook the food. So, after a while I became a professional cook and baker,” George said.

When she turned 18, George met and married Boxhill George, and the couple had eight children. She continued gardening, but this time she worked with her husband in their own garden, selling the produce to the hotels in Crown Point and at the Scarborough market. They also reared turkeys, pigs, cows, goats, sheep and yard fowls. for sale.

Those were the days when she would up at 3 am to prepare breakfast for her children and send them off to school. Then she and Mr George would head to the garden, where she would leave him to go home to prepare lunch for their children and take it to their grandfather’s home next to the Bon Accord primary school, riding her bicycle.

George rode her bicycle everywhere she needed to go, and to transporting everything as well. She remembers the day when she would ride her bike, carry a bag of potatoes on her head.

She has other talents as well. She made children’s school uniforms herself, sewing them by hand because she could not afford a sewing machine. She was keen that her children receive a proper education, which she never had the opportunity to do.

Eventually, George left her husband to continue with the gardening while she found a job at a hotel in Crown Point, working in the laundry department. Occasionally, her supervisor would ask her to help with the cooking. So good was her food, and her attitude to work that she eventually landed the head cook job and worked in that position for 15 years before retiring.

Along the way, George was a nurturing parent.

“I remember the days when all the neighbours’ children would come to our home after school and they would all be crouched-up in the living room looking at a little television which we had. In those days our house was one of the only one in the village with a television set. Whenever they would come, I would make sure that every child had something to eat before going home. I always encouraged my children to love other people’s children and to treat them with kindness just as if they were related,” she said.

This extended to providing for other children when their parents could not provide for them because of financial constraints.

Despite her humble beginnings, George counts as being blessed, attributing her successes to her faith in God. Chief among her blessings must be that her children have all made her proud, having all done well at school and able to fend for themselves.

Daughter, Lucille, a retired acting school principal, describes her mother as a loving and generous person who is also a friend and role model.

“My mother…would just give and continue to give until she had nothing left. I remember as a child growing up, every Christmas, she would bake bread, cakes and sweet bread in our dirt oven and distribute to the neighbours, something which she still does today.

“She would always teach my siblings and I the importance of giving to others when they are in need. It was she who taught us from an early age how to pray and seek God and how we should always love and care for others just as we do ourselves. I love my mother because she is special. Had she not been the type of mother that she was, we would not have been the individuals that we are today. I will not exchange her for anything in this world,” said Lucille.

With her husband now deceased and her children all gone their separate ways, George remains a mother and advisor to persons in and out of her community.