THE ART OF REINVENTION can happen at any time in a person’s life. Sometimes it is thrust upon someone as a result of unexpected change in situation, or sometimes it’s a combination of Fate and opportunity presenting themselves in a subtle way. Such was the case with Ann Reid.
For many years Barbadians had come to know her as the face of Courts, as she was the managing director. So stepping away from that place that had defined her for more than 20 years was challenging at best.
“When I came out of Courts I was really not sure what I was going to be doing,” she said. “I knew it was the end of a season, but I just couldn’t feel what that transition was.”
Ann, for most of her life, had been a consummate multitasker. She had a thriving job, was also studying law and was building a family – which was no easy feat.
“I did my law degree in 1986. I started it and then I got married and then in my final year I got pregnant with my daughter. I wrote my exams really big pregnant and I was working at Courts.
“You know when I look back I’ve always done like two or three different things at the same time. So I was at Courts, I was studying, pregnant and newly married. So she was born in September, but I stayed on and looked after my daughter. But I never really had intentions of going to law school; I just did it.”
There are some people who would question her decision to put a career in law on pause, but Ann was always clear on her priorities and what she deemed important.
“I think motherhood is a gift from God,” she said “and it was very important for me to be a mum and to find that balance.
I always planned around my children and family. It was something I did consciously and deliberately.
“I never really had the intention to go to law school to become an attorney-at-law. Even when I came out of Courts at the end of 2004, many of my friends said that was the perfect time to go to law school to get it finished with. But I never really felt that push.”
Leaving Courts armed with her marketing background, Ann soon found that the marketing arena had changed and was different to the one she was used to.
“The whole area of marketing and public relations was changing,” she said.
In the meantime she worked on several different things and then 2007 rolled around.
“It was a very remarkable year because I had surgery and a long downtime and then someone that we’d known over the years had died,” she said.
“Dealing with that unexpected death I became very introspective. I am always very attuned to life and purpose. When I was recuperating I would pray and say, ‘Lord, I’m looking for your guidance’, and I kept hearing, ‘Finish law.’”
Ann admitted that she wrestled with that voice because though she had asked for God’s guidance, that wasn’t the answer she wanted or was expecting to hear.
“To finish law meant that I had to go and live in another country for two years because you can’t do it in Barbados,” she said. “I was thinking I have my family, responsibilities; I just can’t go and do that.”
But that voice telling her to finish law would never go away.
“As circumstances would have it, a project I was working on was soon going to come to an end. My daughter was in first year at university. It was like the hand of Fate when I heard from the law school,” she said.
Though Ann had resolved in her mind to go and finish law school, her concern was for her son, who was in fourth form and approaching SBAs.
“I woke up one morning and I heard this voice that said, ‘Take your son with you,’” she revealed. “My husband was travelling a lot and I felt that I had poured everything into my daughter for her CXCs and I wanted to do the same for him.”
Ann wasn’t daunted by the time away from her husband.
“This year we celebrate 25 years of marriage, so what’s a little time apart?” she said.
After consulting with a business colleague, Ann was given a recommendation for a school her son could attend near to the law school.
“I spoke to my son and asked him if he’d come with me for the year and he said, ‘I’ll come, but I’ll come for just a year’. It was a beautiful school and the kids there encouraged him to work and he got great results. If I had gone to Trinidad and he wasn’t with me, I don’t think I would have done well.
It so happened, too, that my daughter was at university in Trinidad as well, so I had that peace.”
That peace of mind was essential, especially during that first semester of law school, which she found particularly challenging.
“In law school I had to draw on every skill,” she said candidly. “And I had to catch up on 20 years of law, and also I was a mature student. I didn’t know many people at law school because they were all coming from Cave Hill.”
Making the transition during that first semester of law school was incredibly difficult for Ann.
“I used to cry like every day,” she revealed. “I didn’t feel intimated because it’s not in my nature to feel intimidated, but there were many days when I’d feel overwhelmed. There were days when I would say, ‘Ann, you sure you heard the right voice?’”
If school wasn’t challenging enough, Ann still had her son to take care of when she came home.
“Again, I’ve never really done just one thing, so I had to call on my organizational skills,” she said. “It was very important to be organized because I had to account for every minute.
“I had to plan menus so I wouldn’t have to think about what to cook today. My children are used to home-cooked meals; they’re not really into fast food. I don’t think my son ate as much as that year he was in Trinidad.”
Balancing law school and motherhood was essential for Ann’s success in Trinidad as well as her son’s.
After enduring what she dubbed as her “baptism by overwork” during the first semester, Ann was better acclimated during the second semester. By the time she graduated she had even earned herself the Counsel’s Prize at the Legal Aid Clinic.
“My decision to actually go to law school was done in a short space of time. I applied but I was thinking that I would defer and go the following year based on things that were happening,” Ann said. The difficulty of the transition was when I came back here and started to practise law.
After coming back to Barbados, Ann then had to immerse herself in the Barbadian legal system – which was not an easy feat.
“Those eight months after being called to the bar was the difficult phase,” Ann admitted. “It made law school seem like a piece of cake.”
It took a whole lot of prayer, introspection and listening to God to help Ann find Unity Chambers – where she is currently based.
“If I didn’t have Unity Chambers I would have exited the legal system by now,” Ann said. “I just found it a really difficult transition. I became very conscious I was in a different place.”
Eventually, however, Ann did grow to embrace and find her place within the legal system. She also found several great mentors in other attorneys who helped her transition.
So here is Ann Reid, years later as the attorney.
She willingly made her sacrifices for her children Leah and Simon and has no regrets about the path her life has taken. In her eyes, it seems to have been all ordained by God. Her daughter is now in medical school and her son is at the University of the West Indies studying banking and finance.
“I actually enjoy being a mum,” she said. “I always had older people around me who encouraged me to enjoy my children because they grow up very quickly. So I always wanted to be around for them. I would always plan around my family and my children, and I never did other things to take away from the time I had with them.
“There were a lot of things I didn’t do because I would put the time into them. Even when I did my Master’s, I did it in the evenings when they were home from school and settled.
“So I have no regrets. I always knew that the time would come when I’d be able to gain everything. So it may have been 15 or 16 years later, but I don’t feel like I’ve given up anything, I feel like I’ve gained so much.”
