Heads up, arms raised in praise in this book
Bajan NY virus deaths
in double figures
Caribbean Life, April 24-30, 2020 25
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
You know you have it.
There’s all kinds of potential
inside you but how can you actually
use it? Says author Jo Saxton
in her new book “Ready to Rise,”
it takes determination, a community,
strength, belief in yourself,
and a little leaning on God.
After hearing her seventhgrade
daughter give a speech to
classmates, Jo Saxton reflected
on what her child said and how,
as a teenager, Saxton’s daughter
understood that she had it
within herself to help fix “a broken
world.”
That was a lesson that Saxton
herself didn’t possess at that
same age.
Born in Nigeria, the child
of a broken home, Saxton was
raised by an elderly foster mother
whom she cared for deeply. Still,
she says, she was fearful that
something was wrong with her,
and leadership was very far from
her mind then.
“… I was the last person who
should be given opportunity for
influence,” she muses.
Many women are like that, in
that respect, Saxton suggests,
and it’s not good – for a woman
herself, for any business she may
be invested in, or for the world
at large.
Disempowerment, for example,
is detrimental to women
who are searching for mentors
or “living examples.“ As for business,
“including women in leadership
improves a business’s bottom
line,” and diversity improves
its culture.
Personally, Saxton says that
she relies heavily on her faith to
find the right path toward influence.
She often thinks of the
women in the Bible, the travails
they endured, and the actions
they took. Biblical tales have
many lessons for today’s women
and their quest for “faith-shaped
purpose…”
Embrace the gifts God has
given you, Saxton says; He was
happy to give them to you, so
you should use them. Find your
voice and use it, too; outspokenness
with purpose is not a
bad thing. You are smart; never
forget that. Learn to “grow your
grit” and build the “village” you
need for success. And finally,
take care of yourself, in mind,
body, and spirit, and you’ll be
amazed at what you can accomplish.
The very first thing you need
to know about “Ready to Rise” is
that it’s very faith-based.
That doesn’t at all make this
a bad book, but it’s absolutely
going to change the audience for
it: women who‘re looking for a
strictly-business book will want
to look elsewhere.
Yes, the advice here is solid
and do-able, especially for the
woman who truly needs that
first baby-step toward self-confidence,
or for the quiet type
who’s newly assimilating into a
large corporation. Yes, author
Jo Saxton offers a wide variety
and range of business-related
topics as they relate to women
in the workplace, but most of
those are woven with mostly Old
Testament stories and musings
on the life and works of Jesus
and several women of the Bible.
Again, not bad – just be aware.
Men, of course, can read this
book but it’s really meant for
women who need a faith-based
boost. If that’s you, then find it:
“Ready to Rise” has potential.
“Ready to Rise” by Jo
Saxton
c.2020, Waterbook
$16.99 / $22.99
Canada, 224 pages
Book cover of “Ready To Rise” by Jo Saxton.
By George Alleyne
A Barbadian entertainer,
Desmond Weekes, lost two
younger sisters in New York
within days to the dreaded
novel coronavirus (COVID-19),
and these fatalities helped push
deaths of Bajan-New Yorkers to
over 20.
The two New York resident
sisters who migrated to the US
some 40 years ago, Jean Weekes
Husbands, 65; and Almonda
Weekes, 68, passed away
in three days of each other of
COVID-19 complications in a
Brooklyn hospital earlier this
month.
Desmond Weekes, who
is resident in Barbados is a
former lead singer of a yesteryear
Spouge band, the Draytons
Two.
“I can’t get them out of my
thoughts, because growing up
we slept in one bed as kids, we
shared one cup and one cake of
soap and the same spoons and
the same forks,” the elder Weekes
told local Barbados media of
their childhood days in Carrington
Village, St. Michael.
“We slept in a little bed and my
mother was at the foot … It is
tough because I can’t go and
see my sisters, can’t wish them
goodbye, knowing they are in
hospitals by themselves.”
But as Desmond Weekes
grieves there has emerged a
report of a bright spot among
the Bajan New York community,
with news of a Long
Island resident, Douglas Mayers,
successfully fighting off
this scourge that has taken
thousands of lives in this state
alone.
The Barbados Nation newspaper
last Sunday reported
that the 78-year-old, “a prominent
voice on Long Island
for America’s oldest and largest
civil rights organisation,
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), is back enjoying a
healthy appetite after a serious
battle with the deadly coronavirus.”
“Considering that at one
stage last month I was hooked
up to sophisticated machines
in a hospital, was given different
medications, didn’t have a
sense of taste, ran high temperatures,
was afflicted with
congested lungs and classified
as pre-diabetic and hypertensive,
I have come a long, long
way,” the Bajan-New Yorker
was reported saying.
According to Mayers, he
picked up the virus from a
friend who had driven him and
wife. Arlene, home from the
airport when they returned
from a holiday abroad.
Fortunately the wife was
unaffected.