How Hurricane Jamaica Made Landfall In My Soul

CHAPTER ONE

Welcome to CHAPTER ONE of my island memoirs, originally published in 2011 and adapted to include current times and life situations. Each chapter is free to read for the first week and then it’ll drop behind a paywall. Coconuts are free…rum is not 🍹

These were my actual (now adapted) book dedications.

To my son, Curtis. He will always be the only one who ever fully understood me.

Special thanks to my mother. If not for her I would have been homeless and without internet each time I came back to Canada.

To my BFFs in Jamaica who probably don’t know the impact they had on me throughout this odyssey. Without them, Ochi never would have felt like home and Middle Quarters would never have become home. Speaking of home, Shane, you were the best neighbor a girl could ever have and I owe you endless flasks of Wray & Nephew.

Ask anyone who’s known me since before Jamaica until now and you’ll find out that my three most life-altering events are (in this order):

The birth of my son,

my discovery of Jamaica,

and the death of my son.

Those three events reshaped me from the inside out and rocked the foundation of the life I thought I would live.

Some might wonder why I’d choose to write a life-changing book about Jamaica when I’ve survived a thing as monumental as maternal grief, but some things I like to keep tucked away in my quiet parts.

Also, the impact of travel can never be overstated.

Hence…Jamaica it is.

I find it utterly fascinating how something that occurred purely by chance actually pulled enough pieces together that I could look back far beyond hindsight and say “Ah-ha, that’s why that happened!”

It was no accident at all.

This memoir was supposed to be about my travels to Jamaica, how I moved there, and how everything I touched turned into golden coconuts. Instead, it morphed into a book about revelations, triumphs, bravery, introspection, and yes, all the failures.

If I were a stranger reading this I’d totally want to find out how the book ends and where this unbridled island gypsy ended up.

These pages are not at all about typical experiences one might have in Jamaica and should never be used as a guide of what to do or not do if you choose to vacation or move there.

As they say in advertising; results may vary.

I kind of knew that going in but didn’t take it under heavy consideration.

When I say Hurricane Jamaica “happened” to me, I mean it. I didn’t ask for my life to be tossed upside down in the spin cycle but that’s indeed what happened.

Have you ever wondered if people actually win those "win a vacation” contests?

I’m living proof that they do because I won a vacation. Twice, in fact.