Recollections

I can remember our family especially during your father’s time, that on Chinese New Year we would invite all the Chinese families in Falmouth to partake with us a dinner cooked by Uncle Sam and Mama. The men would also set up their gambling tables playing Mah Jong and Pi Q i in our large living room while drinking and smoking. Poor us children who had to inhale all that toxic air. When they were getting frustrated during the games they would shout expletives in Chinese quite often. I did not understand the meaning until one day I happen to say it and got such a reprimand from Mama I never dared said it again. They would leave their tables and cards in the same positions and return the next day to continue for another day. As a child we used to go into the drawers of the tables and look for small change like six pence or 3 pence and pocket them. Occasionally some of the gamblers would give us children small changes especially when they win, which they used to call “Sore Foot” Do not know the derivation of that term.

There was also the Chinese lessons your father arranged for the children in Falmouth to attend once per week and employed a teacher who they used to call ” Sen Sang.” Gwen would be able to give you more details on these lessons since she was a regular attendee.

The Chinese children in Falmouth was one big happy family since we would frequently visit each others homes to play and offered to partake of the meal that they had prepared . There never seemed to be any animosities between our respective parents.

Riding bicycles up to Big Bridge on a Sunday with adults like Mama and Marguerite partaking along with the children was one of the healthy activities our family did..I never learned to ride, so I would walk. Thank God no TV to keep us at home as couch potatoes.!! Going to the beach on a Sunday was a regular activity also. As a special treat we would have Emily the cook make a big pan of delicious macaroni and cheese,or baked macaroni and Mince rice, and peas and a roast to go to Dunn’s River Falls for the day. Home made ice cream was churned in a hand turned ice cream maker which was a metal can with a handle inserted into a wooden crate, The space in between the crate and container was packed with ice and added salt. When the ice cream mixture was made it was put into the container, covered and churned until the contents turned creamy.

Crab Hunting during the height of the crab season was another fun activity we enjoyed. Armed with our kerosene bottle torches,and crocus bags we would head to the beaches or swampy areas by the beach at nights and take out crabs from the holes they dug or catch them while they were running on the beach. With our heavily laden bags of live crabs we would head home put a large 5 Gall tin container that cooking oil was sold in, add water, salt, and scotch bonnet bonnet on a coal fire and boil some of the newly caught crabs. the excess we would store in wooden barrels with covers to prevent them from crawling out. When the crabs were cooked we would arm ourselves with empty aerated drinks bottles that were used to crack the shells and proceeded to enjoy our bounty until we were satiated. This could last well into late at night. Leslie I remember was one of the regular players in this so he could help to fill in the blanks.

This is what I can remember for now that would be of interest to the recording of our history.

I am so happy, I can’t stop SMILING!!!!!

Andrea “Angie” Patricia Davis
July 27, 1959 –  February 20, 2019

My sister Andrea, or “Angie” as we all affectionately called her, came into this world on July 27th, 1959, the middle child of five, to Doris and Albert Chin See of Falmouth, Jamaica.  On this island paradise, her dad gave her the chinese name Set-Chang, or “pure snow.”  Perhaps it was chance, perhaps it was fate, that she would ultimately meet her future husband Grant, and settle and raise a family in Canada, the great white north.

She was a precocious child, starting to read before age 4 and having wisdom beyond her age.  Of all the kids, she was the rational one, often keeping her older siblings, and cousins out of trouble at the old Chin See Bros. building.  In those carefree days, the children were often left up to their own devices, while our parents were busy running the family business.  Judith and Andrea once found a pair of scissors upstairs in the old building where we lived, and decided to play hairdresser. Needless to say, little Andrea ended up with a very interesting hairstyle, courtesy of hair stylist Judith.

At a very young age, she was sent to Mount Alvernia Catholic boarding school, where the Sisters cared for her. Her teacher Sister Odette Haddad still remembers her as a good, gentle, kind, caring child with brilliance that stood out.  Indeed, it’s these very qualities of Andrea that people remembers most.  Her friends, former colleagues and clients where she worked at Canada Trust Bank all remarked at her genuine kindness and her willingness to go the extra effort it takes to get things done properly.  She was very compassionate, and through this quality made many lifelong friends.

Andrea loved music.  She took piano lessons while at Mount Alvernia, and like everything else she put her mind to, she excelled at that too.  Music remained a central theme in her life.  She had a piano in her house, and her three children all learned to play the piano, and in addition, several other musical instruments.  She enjoyed theater, the opera, ballet and music concerts.  She even took to listening to Korean rap music at one time, after her son Glenn brought back an MC Mong CD from Korea.   

On occasion, when she would insist on something done a certain way, she used to joke it was because she was stubborn and that she inherited this trait from from her mother.  Sometimes she would say it’s because she is just a stubborn Hakka woman.  But where she says stubbornness, I would say perseverance.  You see, there is a big difference between stubbornness and perseverance.  Stubborness is rooted in emotion and fear.  Perseverance requires intelligence, forethought and wisdom.  Angie had all of these traits, plus quite a few more.  Despite being diagnosed with lupus soon after the birth of her third child, and a few years later being told that she had an inoperable brain tumor, she decided that she would not let her illness define her.  Instead, she persevered, and embraced her love of life and family.

Andrea was a devoted daughter.  She called to video chat every night with her mother, and flew to Miami twice a year to be with her mom and to assist in anyway she could, with household chores, shopping and taking Mom to the doctor when needed, once in July and again at Thanksgiving, when we would have our annual family gathering.   She would call by video whenever she could, even when her paralysis made it increasingly difficult to speak.

Andrea loved travel and adventure.  She and Grant both visited many countries, including the Caribbean, Mexico, Belize,  Spain, Iceland, Australia, China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea and other countries in the far east.  They had planned to visit New Zealand last year, when her health deteriorated.  

Andrea loved mangoes and avocados and everything fruity and tropical. Last year when she came down to visit her Mom during the summer, as she did every year for the past several years, she told me she ate a mango every day while she was here. I was happy to oblige her of all the mangoes she could eat her fill of. My trees provided a bountiful crop of mangoes last year.  She also liked the tomatoes my garden provided, and ate a salad every night with our home grown tomatoes.  Going home, she bought several avocados to take back to her kids, and packed mangoes and avocados in her carry-on suitcase and backpack, judiciously weighing the suitcase to make sure it was not overweight. Later she told me she fell over at the airport because the weight shifted in her backpack due to all the mangoes and avocados she was carrying home, throwing her off balance, and that she had to crawl on hands and knees to regain her balance and get back up.  It must have been quite a sight!  But again, this illustrates her caring character.  Going home, she thought of her kids.  She thought of them enjoying the mangoes and avocados she had enjoyed at Japo’s house, and no matter how heavy the backpack, it was worth taking some back.

Last year, Jeff took Angie, Ling (Curtis) and I on a tour of Homestead and we stopped at the Buddhist Temple there.  It had just started to rain when we got there, so we looked around, took some pictures, and was just about to leave, when the door on an adjoining building opened, and a guy invited us over. Turns out the building was the kitchen/dining area for the Buddhist monks and we were invited to share their lunch. On the Temple property were several trees, laden with longan fruit.  After lunch and a small donation to the Temple, the monks helped us pick a big bag of longans to take home. Needless to say, we had our fill of longans that night.

Her greatest regret was not having been able to travel from Toronto to Miami to attend her father’s funeral.  At the time, she was pregnant with her third child, Lauren, and her doctor advised her against traveling.  She later told me she wanted to be laid to rest next to her father.

She passed peacefully on February 20, 2019. The same day, and the same month of our father’s passing, 27 years ago.  Today, she will be laid to rest next to her dad, a wish fulfilled.