Leila Albertha Sinclair – Mc Farlane was born on March 17, 1947 at Sandvoort Village, West Canje, Berbice, Guyana. She was the second girl and the fifth child born to Alford and Tabitha Sinclair.

Leila grew up in Sandvoort with her siblings and extended family. She had her formal education at St Ambrose Anglican School, then Grant’s Commercial and completed her secondary education at Berbice Educational Institute (B.E.I) where she distinguished herself as an excellent student.

After gaining her O’Levels, Leila applied and was accepted into the Guyana School of Agriculture to be an Agricultural Consultant, unfortunately she did not complete her training and returned home because of her mother’s illness.

Leila’s dream was to become a Medical Doctor but because of financial constraints she could not have pursued that dream. She then, pursued a career in Nursing.

While waiting to enter New Amsterdam Hospital School of Nursing, Leila went to work at her aunt’s and uncle-in-law store in Linden. She returned to Sandvoort and entered New Amsterdam Hospital Nursing School in 1969. Leila was brilliant, ambitious, and assertive at home and wherever else she went. She topped her class throughout her nursing training. In Clinical Practice, she excelled and was chosen for special training at the Ophthalmology Department of the Georgetown Hospital. Upon the completion of training, Leila returned to New Amsterdam Hospital and managed the Ophthalmology Department for many years, training other nurses in this speciality.

Leila was adventurous, she left Guyana in 1974 for Jamaica where she did not know anyone there. She only had a pen-pal (friend). She worked at Black River Hospital where she worked as a registered nurse.

In 1979 she left Jamaica for Scotland where she did her training to become a mid-wife. She worked in Scotland for a short while. Then in 1980 she moved to England where she did her training in Psychiatry.

She worked in several hospitals in London in the field of Mental Health. Leila continued her studies and gained her BSc (Hons) in Psychology from “Open University" in 1995. She also, held a diploma in Child-Care and wrote and passed U.S.A Nursing Licensure Exams. She retired as Assistant Ward Manager (Psychiatry) in 1997.

Leila met the love of her life, Leonard McFarlane in the summer of 1983, they got married in February 2, 1985. Their union lasted until the time of her passing.

Leila was a nurse, florist, had extra-ordinary culinary skills as cake-maker and decorator, cook, writer, poet, seamstress and gardener. She was a stickler for perfection to the extent that she used a ‘Spirit-level’ to measure the exact placement for her decorations on her cakes.

To her younger siblings (the girls) we refer to her as “Miss Perkins” a name she never knew of; she wanted everything she did, done perfectly.

Leila departed this life on Sunday, May 2, 2021. She leaves to mourn her husband, Len, five sisters, Avis, Sylvia, Sheila, Yolande and Carol, three brothers – Thourold, James and Alphod, foster daughter Sonia, son in-law Michael, grandchildren Andre, Jenai and Shanté, and numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great- nephews, cousins and friends.

Sleep on beloved, you will always live in our hearts.