[ A TRIBUTE LETTER TO MARCIA FROM AMB. MEDINA WESSEH ]
The last of the Brewervillian Greaves
Brewerville - VOA road. Then Wilson corner. In that part of the settlement around the St Paul River, there were several corners then. . . Moulton corner, and Parker corner were within walking distances. Along the Wilson corner VOA road, there were just a handful of families - Ms. Maria, Joe Coward, Old man Booley Boot, William Edward Greaves, Ms. Burgess, John Harvey, Zack and Sarah Brown, and Jessie Banks. These were all the people up and around the train track. Arguably the most imposing structure with a manicure garden along the horseshoe style concrete edifice was the family homestead of the Greaves family. If a garden was to be a center piece and later in Marcia’s life, a garden around her and the inner peace and joy Marcia found, it could be traced to the meticulous nature and details Mummy took with her gardens and flowers. Either she would cut them herself or if they were cut, she would arrange them herself in the living room and the master bedroom. There were several areas for these fresh cut flowers from Joetta Greaves’ garden. And talk about those days and times, on reflection, the doors were always open first thing in the morning and remained open all day once Joetta Greaves was home. She was the most fulltime housewife and multitasking person we all watched who cooked even though she had a cook and cleaned and talked and directed all the cleaning. Just name all the domestic chore that could be going on. On one side of the house was Sister Marcia’s room. It was also Mummy's sewing room…I don’t recall sister Marcia in those past years. (now that is 50 years ago) spending much time as Marcia had gone off to Cuttington and by 1971 she was now married to Cousin Emmanuel, the love of her life. Their picture of a happy couple, proud parents, also handsome dude with his classic Afro. .. Joetta Hall greaves was the matriarch of that family. A large family and with Dad, William Edward Greaves, he was everybody's dad. Grandfather. Uncle and just the big man with a big family. And so the two houses Sam Shepherd House and Willie Greaves House…That was how the people of Brewerville distinguished the houses. We as kids in the shepherd household,- Samuel, Mizpah and my little self -saw Marcia as the eldest. There was Ethan, Wilma and, Ken her biological siblings in the Greaves Homestead. Marcia was the last of the Brewerville household who just left us in June this year.
As far as we could see and tell 50 or so odd years ago, ( I am relying on my memory from when I was 10 yrs and Sister Marcia was already 20 years old) only Sister Marcia in that house was the big one..so sister..although real life aunty. Story for another day. The rest Ethan and Ken “da crowd of boys”. We were one and the same. We went in every morning to greet Dad and Mummy when we were not on the mission at Ricks or away in Freetown. As stated, all this while sister Mar or Marcia had gone off to Cuttington and by 1971 married to the Tiger,- Emmanuel Lionel Shaw III
How do you tell a 50-year-old or long story in few lines? Except for the pleasantries of the scent like the flowers she planted along life’s way. The roses and flowers provided her inspiration ...like the flower gardens on each side of the Greaves homestead, with the front flower garden and the official flagpole, no one could go down VOA Road and not admire or pick a rose or hibiscus if you were permitted by the main Gardener. So a Garden offered so much to Mummy and invariably to all of us and Sister Marcia’s garden in South Africa became renowned.
Dad, our patriarch was a retired Brigadier General...though Ken would always remind Sister Marcia that her father was one general who never fired a shot from any gun. Dad’s office was adorned with his commission and awards. and sister Marcia found herself in that corner of the house. She left her Corner and it was eventually taking over by Ken who was a local hero in Brewerville city as a local Singer and Band leader.
It would be Sister Marcia 's new family that would bring joy to the Greaves Homestead When her baby boy Lionel IV came along..her original nucleus gave her a sweet warm smell she savored all her life and in the lives of the larger greaves family at home and abroad....
The Greaves family did not need any special occasion but if any of the other siblings were in country or came from afar - there were Ambassador Bro Elwood. Aunty Sister Marjorie, Sis Joyce Viklund, Sister Tina Barclay, Sister Momsie McCritty, Bro Milton, Waldron, and of course our own Daddy Sam Shepherd. The Greaves home was a welcoming space and food was always available. Literally because Mummy cooked and stockpiled variety. To this date, I can only compare your food as good as Mummy's this or that.. then Sam Shepherd Jr Started cooking ..another story for another day on how the Greaves people can cook so well.
Sister Marcia would go off to start her own family. Like a rose flower, she planted it sprouted or if we stick to the rose family...it budded. The first bud, the center of her life, ELS the tiger and Marcia to the rest of us, were inseparable love birds..at the time..how one flew away from the other..birds don’t come back to tell their stories..like the bees they nectar and the flowers continue to blossom..the children she inherited as her own and the biological ones she cared for just like her own... the artist and painters will look for fine lines, but only the mother gardener and lover of her roses will tell you which rose bud was grafted from which tree. As far as we knew Elma and Eugene were her own children.
And while a rose garden always has a rich aroma, we know some buds and flowers die off or wither. So it was with Lionel her baby boy who had blossomed into a full man and blessed the family with grandchildren and had to leave. Literally left a fragrance on the hands of his mother. She clung on to the memory of his fragrance on his shadows. In all of this she had her moments of pain and sadness and happiness She made herself happy and she shared the infections smile and half laughter along the way or mid-way each story. She loved to laugh and looked for laughter around you.
Her garden of roses and friends was a topic and a threat for me. I threatened to visit twice when I was in Jo’burg and Pretoria but did not go to smell and savor the smell and watch her put time, skill, and energy in her own garden in Jo'burg. nor were we ever able to measure. But Elma and her buds. Eugene ..Lamelle and Eunese and all the buds will continue in the garden of life. The fragrance we all will continue to savor.
She visited our clan and Senator Wesseh or then Amb. or Minister or Hon. She took time to find his right title to make sure she got it right which almost always started the laughing. The years have gone by so fast. There was Lionel, Lamelle and Eunese all with her visiting us at Duport.Road. She was appreciating my lawn and small garden and garden we must all have and tender.
We spoke last on her 70th. My brother Sam had called, and he said have you spoken with your aunt. Sister Marcia today? It is her birthday. Oh, it was swift. I called her and she just happened to have just been putting down the phone. What a hearty laugh she gave out...when I said she hit 70 which is the new 50 now and she was beginning to look 35 going 40. I said this was encouraging to me, as by the time she reaches 90, I would know how I would be acting. A whole decade between us. She cracked up even more. I savored that moment to the day I learnt from Joyce Mends Cole that she had been taken to hospital. I called and she returned with a text. And as a registered practicing home remedy traditional medical practitioner niece of hers, I took my practice to her bed side. We kept up by text and was feeling elated when she was giving signs of hope that she was turning the curve to recovery. Until my big sister Joyce Mends-Cole, again who had kept up with her through another part of the sisterhood network - Marcia Morgan. It all came back to me. Like her roses, life like a flower, fades away. The smell lingers, her flower was gone away. It would linger as a smell. A work or art..like the laughter ..the echo.. simmers. The doors that were always open to welcome the large Greaves Clan and all who came along to the place we longed and loved. The doors on the Brewervillian Greaves family on VOA Road can now be closed. Marcia Greaves Shaw is and or was the last and she has just shut the door…always loved and will be forever in our gardens.
Medina