Bajans Are Strong Despite Disabilities

Sunday was an ordinary day for Victor. I saw him walking down the Scarborough gap from his Pegwell home. He was carrying a small table, a cooler with drinks and a large jar with snacks, they were all balanced on top of his head. He had another small table slung over his left shoulder. I noticed him when I glanced out the church window while we were inside singing a hymn. I know, you are wondering why was I looking out the window while we were singing? Well, uh, uh, let’s just move on. Lol

Victor Husbands was a local hero of sorts to many of the children (that are now adults) in Pegwell Christ Church. At a time when most households were below the poverty line, Victor was able to make toys for the young kids in the neighborhood out of almost anything. For the older boys he made go-carts out of scrap wood and tin cans.

I recently learned that Victor and I have several things in common. We are both married with two grown children a boy and a girl and we both recently retired from our main jobs. I retired from Meditech as a Systems Support Technician and Victor from the Barbados Telephone Company. I am completely retired, never to work again, but Victor is only “semi-retired”. He still canes chairs, sells chicken and turkey wings from his house and sell snacks from his small stand most weekends at the bus station in Oistins.

On the other hand there are two ways in which Victor and I are very different. First, I’ve never been considered a local hero. Second and the biggest difference is I can see, Victor is blind. *I neglected to ask Victor if he was blind since birth but everyone around here says that he has always been blind. Although one person laughed and said “I in sure he blind ya kno, de way he walk bout here en crosses de street hisself, I tink he can see!”

Victor has not let his disability hold him back, as I mentioned earlier, he recently retired from the Barbados Phone Company after 30 years of employment servicing equipment at the company workshop.

While I was chatting with Victor, I asked for a bottle of water from his cooler. The water was $2.50 so I handed him 3 one dollar coins. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hand full of coins and said that I could get my own change. I refused and told him he could keep the change as a tip. I wondered if he was so trusting of everyone and asked if he had any bad experiences.

Victor told me that for the most part people are honest but gave a couple of examples of less than truthful characters. He told me of one woman that he was suspicious of that tried to cheat him.  After gathering items from the table she handed Victor a bill and said it was a $20 bill. As he was standing to give the woman change from his pants pocket, he placed the bill in a pocket separate from his other money. With a slight of hand that a magician would be proud of,  he retrieved her bill from the same pocket to give her change and asked her how much it was. “Five dollars” the woman said. He said “Wait, How de $20 bill change tah a $5 bill, it de same bill yah gih meh? She made such a fuss that Victor gave her the change and told her “Don come back!”

Another occasion a young boy gave him a piece of paper saying it was a $2 bill not knowing that money and paper feels differently. “I mek de boy gih back de snack en run he off!”

Victor is an independent man that I often see walking around Oistins with the aide of his cane. He once asked me as he entered the Scarborough gap if there was a truck parked on the side of the road. I told him “Yes” as there was a big white truck parked about 50 feet ahead. He said “Tanks” and continued down the road. I watched as he walked towards the truck moving his cane left to right to see if he needed further assistance. When he got to the truck he turned towards the house and shouted for Jerry then started a conversation after Jerry responded.

There I was thinking he may have been concerned about an obstacle in the road but he was just checking to see if Jerry was home. Victor is a man that is not encumbered by the obstacles that he has encountered in life.

Although Victor is small in stature, quiet in temperament, and humble in spirit, he remains a giant and a hero in the eyes on many in Scarborough/Pegwell area.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. Stevie Wonder

* I only had the opportunity to speak to Victor once about 6 weeks ago. I wanted to follow up with him but I have not seen him at his stand for the past month and a half. However, someone has told me that they saw him a couple of weeks ago and he appears well. Most likely since it is Christmas time he has been caning chairs.