Great grandmother. MONICA VINCENT FORD.
My earliest recollection of my mother, your great grandmother was of a quiet,happy woman who was always singing. She was always busy around the house which she shared with my grandparents, Richard and Clementina Vincent. While my grandmother took care of home duties, she spent most of her time sewing clothing for the family and for customers. I liked the sound of the scissors as she cut the fabric on the table and as soon as it was safe for me to do so, I learnt to thread a needle knot threads, and make stitches in fabric and as I grew older to stitching dolls' garments which she had cut out for me. Toys were not abundant then, but she would make my dolls from fabric which she then stuffed.
Some of the songs she liked to sing were nursery rhymes and hymns the words of which sounded quite different to what they actually were. She taught us, my brother and myself, our letters and numbers. Since there was not much by way of writing books, we used slates and slate pencils as our tools and so we learnt to read, write words and to sketch animals. I still remember the cats made of three circles, the whiskers, tail, legs eyes, ears and mouth. We learned to read and write quite early in life and got a head start over a lot of other kids in the district.
As we grew older and more children arrived, my mother , your great grandmother, had to take a job teaching in an infant school some distance from home. My grandmother therefore took on the job of mothering the children during the week.
As the children grew older, and the family moved into the city, Monica decided to further her education. She studied to be a practical nurse and worked at that profession. On moving to the United States, by which time she was in her fifties, she continued her studies in nursing, qualifying herself in the American system, which allowed her to work there.
As a devoted Christian, she taught us stories from the Bible and especially of Jesus which has given us the base on which to build our Christian Faith. Her way of living and being were an example to us of how Jesus wanted us to be... Loving, compassionate, kind, gentle, meek, etc. not only to our families but to others not related to us.
