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29th
October 2011
A Lovely
Woman and Devoted Mother
Ramia Thomas
 Her
radiant smile is a reflection of her caring
soul. At the age of nineteen and being the youngest
of her siblings, Elizabeth Etienne made the
brave decision to leave college to raise a child
on her own.
“I had my son, one year after I left the
Morne Technical College. Life has been a challenge
from then. Having a child at such a young age
was very challenging for me as I hardly knew
what it meant to take care of a child. Luckily
I was the last of five siblings and was fortunate
that I had family around to help,” said
Elizabeth.
At that time Elizabeth was employed by Caribbean
Agricultural Research and Development Institute
(CARDI) and earned hardly enough to take care
of herself and her son. Although extremely shy,
she was able to make extra money from dancing.
A talent she had started to develop at the Castries
Comprehensive Secondary School.
“I joined the LTD Dancers under the head
of Michael “Ikael” Francis, where
I was able to develop my skills and then moved
on to the Charmalion Dance Ensemble under the
leadership of Rosemary Etienne. From there my
career as a dancer really began to flourish,
as the group grew and began travelling mostly
around the Caribbean, Canada and the United
States. The experience was a great one as it
open up new horizons, and I met many other dancers
and interesting people along the way,”
said Elizabeth.
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As
time passed, Elizabeth developed other talents,
such as sewing and costume-making skills when
the Charmalion dance group formed a junior carnival
band and won band of the year for the first
nine years of its existence.
“I have participated and made costumes
for carnival bands in Barbados, Martinique,
Toronto and Trinidad. Being part of Charmalion
made me realized that it is wise to have more
than one talent or trade as this has helped
me significantly in times of financial difficulty,”
said Elizabeth.
For the past twenty-four years Elizabeth has
been employed by one of the leading financial
institutions in St Lucia, Bank of St. Lucia
and is a loving parent to three wonderful children.
“I have raised my kids on my own and it
has been very difficult to do so without the
assistance of a responsible, committed father.
My experiences in life have taught me how to
survive, how to be independent. I have not accomplished
as much as I would liked to for my family and
myself since my first pregnancy changed my course
tremendously. I much stronger now and I will
always love my family dearly. Although I occasionally
wonder how life would have been if I had given
more thought to my decisions. Life is short
but the decisions that one makes when they are
young can determine who and where they will
end up in life,” concluded Elizabeth.
Please
comment respectfully and responsibly as we reserve
the right to remove any comment we consider
inappropriate. Refrain from personal attacks
and using any offensive language.
Discuss
Story
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