THERE’S NO PLACE like home, sweet home, and even after more than a decade of living abroad Barbadians have been flying back to these sunny shores to spend this Christmas season with family and friends.
Outside the Arrivals Hall at Grantley Adams International Airport last Friday evening, scores of anxious people greeted loved ones, some of whom had not visited the island for more than ten years.
One of those returning was John Thorpe, who has been living in Queens, New York, for more than 40 years. This is his first trip home in 12 years.
The death of his father is the main reason why the carpenter and former Navy Seal is back in the country of his birth, but he says that despite his ill fortune he will be trying to enjoy his stay.
He has lived abroad from the age of 19, having decided to give life outside Barbados “a try”. After “getting into the lifestyle”, he eventually decided to stay in the United States.
Another Barbadian living in Queens, Lashawne Reece, said she does not get to visit the island as regularly as she would like.
After spending the last eight years in New York, Reece finds this trip special since it will be the first time she will meet her two-year-old nephew, Ahdero.
Reece said that after she had moved overseas to further her studies and had been married, New York had become her new home, but she was quick to add that she would cherish every day of her two-week stay.
Wilma Rochester could not contain her delight when her daughter Shanna Walkes came through the doors of the arrivals lounge.
Walkes, who has been living in Toronto, Canada, for the past 18 years, is spending her first Christmas in Barbados in more than four years. She received a bear hug from her mother.
“I feel ecstatic to have her home,” said Rochester, who has two boys here. “She hasn’t been home for a while and I really miss her.”
Retired machinist Martin Cox, who is also living in Toronto, was overjoyed to be back on Bajan soil. Although restricted to a wheelchair, Cox was in high spirits, revealing that he had spent more than 30 years overseas, after leaving these shores to “experiment and see what it was like on the outside”.
He said he had grown accustomed to Canadian life, but was happy to be back in Barbados.
“If I manage to win the lottery in Canada, I will definitely come back here to live,” he declared.
