My Parents

My parents came over in the 1950's and like many of their generation they wanted a better life for their children. They worked very hard in bringing us up with strong principles and ethics and using the skills they had they worked long hours to provide us with a home and a good education.
My mother was a skilled seamstress who taught herself to cut clothes freehand as well as sew. She was very talented and gifted and knew instinctively how to cut and manipulate patterns and fabrics. You may say I’m bias but in all the years I’ve been working with and alongside seamstresses I’ve met anyone who could sew like her. When she came to England she took in sewing and worked from home for a number of years until we were all at school then she went out to work as a sample machinist in various fashion houses. As a child I would watch her as she made clothes for family, friends and clients. She would get me to help with small things, encourage me to practice on my dolls. She bought me a child’s sewing machine, tapestry and fashion design sets. She said it was to help me learn about design and how clothes should fit etc. Mum was mainly about her children with education as a very, very close second.
Both my parents are from an Island called Carriacou in the West Indies. A tiny island but the biggest in The Grenadines!!!! (Very important fact). In England my father worked full time in the post office but outside of work he became a fundraiser for Carriacou. At that time they did not have phones and the only way to contact people was either by letter or telegram (which was usually bad news). So my father would organise dances (Greenwich Town Hall springs to mind) and coach trips to raise money to buy Carriacou their first telecommunication system. It was here that I learnt about business. All of us in the family were involved in helping at these events. At a very early age I would be manning the cloak room taking money, putting coats away and tallying up at the end of the night. Later I would help in the preparation of the food.....there was always food at these events particularly the dances where the family would cook for hundreds of people without really analysing the enormity. We would help in selling tickets to friends and asking others to promote it. Without actually knowing it I think I knew more about profit, loss and balance sheets than anything else before going to secondary school, the learning curve in those "business lessons" were endless but invaluable.