This post is prompted by an email from a Guyanese friend from my Barbados days, who now lives in Michigan with her American husband who went to medical school in St. Vincent. She sent this photo
and asked if I recognised the young woman in the grey sweater. I am embarrassed to admit I did not. My friend Lisa followed up with a message to say that it was Christy Punnett who had recently hosted a 60th birthday party in South Carolina, which had been attended by a Guyanese friend of Lisa's who lives in Texas! How many degrees of separation? A shout-out to Christy - in Barbados, or South Carolina, or wherever she wanders.
Dem Punnett everywhere... When I first moved to Antigua, I was chatting with the driver of the water truck while our cistern was being replenished, and he asked me. "You know dem Punnett from St. Vincent?" I asked why he posed that question, and he told me I looked "like dem"...at which point I revealed that I was from St. Vincent and was indeed one of dem Punnetts. He had moved to Antigua from St.Vincent decades before and had worked for Mas' John as a young man.
“What man can travel this long road and not fill up his soul with crazy arabesques?”
Frances Mayes, A Year in the World
Other family bits...
A friend of Beej's from King’s Hall School in Compton, in the Eastern Townships of
Quebec sent her a group photo from graduation day 1964, and I cropped everyone else out so we could focus on Lovely Betty Jane.
There was also an adorable photo of Beej's Amanda as a little one...
There was also an adorable photo of Beej's Amanda as a little one...
In June, nephews Christopher O'Brien, Scott Serrao and Tristan Punnett visited with Dereck O'Brien (right to left) in Dubai while he was living there for work...
Thanks to Lynden for the gorgeous November Valley sunset...
One love,
Lisbie x
“...all the confusions…would be revealed as cunning arabesques
in a most intricate, beautifully formed story.”
in a most intricate, beautifully formed story.”
Tobias Wolff, Old School
Posts
Thanks for photos! Following up on 'Punnetts' - when we moved from Harrow in Canada to Jamaica the packers came from Toronto - after a while a young man came to me and asked if I knew the Punnetts in St. Vincent. He was a Toney from St. Vincent! But, then he said his family always talked about the 'good old days of the Punnetts'. Make of that what you may.
ReplyDeleteBetty Jane, there are so many great stories in everyone's life of coincidence and serendipity, but I think we Punnetts have especial bounty. I'd love to have a contribution of stories from Family, and I have a whole bunch more of my own to add. Here's to serendipity, and here's to a long and proud heritage of a humble people.
ReplyDeleteLisbie x