"I am going to let down my bucket where I am, right here with you in the British West Indies." June, 1955
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"I am going to let
down my bucket where I am, right here with you
in the British West Indies." June, 1955
Photo: Creative Film Management
March 21 is The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
March 21 is Human Rights Day in South Africa
Remember Sharpeville - Continue the Fight. -- read all about it --- click here
Happy March 13 to all! (Grenadians and others!)
Remembering March 13 and realizing that, through it, wonderful things have been planted --and have not died -- in Grenada. Amid the snows and dusts of today, lie the ashes and buds of tomorrow. I know. I've just been to Grenada and the society is bubbling with good things --if you know how to
value good things, if you know how to look and listen, as the Revo taught us to.
May all our tomorrows be forever bright! ( We are all working hard enough for that !!!!)
D.
Dessima M. Williams, Ph.D.
(Ambassador to OAS March 1979 - October 1983)
Sibyl La Grenade nee Sylvester was born in Carriacou on May 15, 1924. She was brought to Grenada at the tender age of two weeks. She resided in St. David's with her parents, Eva Ollivierre and Cyril St. Bernard Sylvester. Her father, was one of the first people of colour to obtain a post-graduate degree from Yale in the 1930’s, later
returning as the principal of St. David's Primary School, which she attended until she began her secondary school education at St. Joseph's Convent in St. George's. She successfully completed her Senior Cambridge towards graduation in 1939, at the age of fifteen, having placed second in the island. Based on the
results of that examination, she was awarded a scholarship to study nursing in England, which she was eager to accept. However, her protective father, reluctant for his first daughter to leave the island at such a young age, encouraged her instead, to begin teaching at a catholic primary school in St. George's which was known at that time as "Mother Rose" School ( St. Louis R. C. Girls’ School). She actively became involved in teaching needlework and cookery and was later certified as a home economist.
Following her marriage to Allan La Grenade, Sybil temporarily put her teaching career on hold in order to raise her children. She raised 5 daughters of her own and many other adopted children. What many may not know about Sibyl is that in her, there was an intense passion for doing good, helping others wherever and whenever she could. She spent many an evening after her regular workday, traveling throughout the island teaching many who were illiterate to sew, make silk flowers, cook and bake. Then she would teach them to read and write, so they could start and run their own little businesses in order to be self-sufficient.
She would often financially sponsor children who had passed the exhibition scholarship / entrance examinations to secondary school, but could not attend because they did not have the money for school fees or uniforms. She spent many a week-end sewing uniforms and making special occasion or ‘Sunday clothes’ for
many who did not have, just so they would not be the odd man out. Whenever they were invited, she encouraged her children to go visit those of their classmates who lived more simply than they so that they “ would always remember to have compassion, be generous and considerate of others, while understanding that –
there but for the Grace of God go I”. Sibyl was also an avid fund-raiser for all charitable causes through the Catholic Church. In fact at the time of her sudden death she was in the process of raising thousands of dollars for the rebuilding of the Battle Hill Shrine. Her generosity knew no boundary. She was known for giving without hesitation or excuse. Her family members often joked that if she was wearing something, which was admired more than once by the same
person, she took it off and gave it to them! – Such was the extent of her selflessness.
When her youngest child, began attending primary school she returned to teaching. She later became a school supervisor, overseeing the training of Home Economics teachers in Grenada. It was at this point in the late 60's that she started
De La Grenade Home Products, which has now evolved into De La Grenade Industries. The development of her business was interrupted in 1973 when she was forced to leave Grenada during political upheaval on the island. Her husband Allan A. La Grenade, who was retired at the time, continued her cottage
industry and developed the De La Grenade Rum Punch formula that is still used today.
Sibyl’s love of learning and teaching was evident in one of her many pearls of wisdom “Never too young to know, never too old to learn” Thus, during the period that she was out of Grenada, she took the time to pursue and complete a Nursing Degree
at Brooklyn College, in New York, studying neuroscience and neuroanatomy right alongside one of her daughters who was then in Medical school, and another who was in France working on her degree in Languages. Her completion of her Nursing degree was one of her proudest accomplishments, since it allowed her another
avenue through which to help people.
Sibyl returned to Grenada following her two daughters' graduations in 1983 and continued her work on the development of her business, the main focus of which was to build an industry which would use local fruits and materials of Grenada, in an
effort to encourage financial independence for the local farmers and producers.
De La Grenade Industries was registered as a limited liability company in 1984.
She then began giving serious consideration to the expansion of the company into a commercial operation.
Despite the sudden death of her husband in April of 1988, with the encouragement, albeit some trepidation of her children, she continued the commercialization thrust of the business and began construction of the current factory building in 1990. Even before the business was formally commercialized, some of the de La Grenade products received international recognition
for attainment of the highest quality. In 1990 Monde Selection awarded La Grenade Liqueur a Gold Medal and Morne Delice Nutmeg Syrup a Grand Gold Medal.
Sibyl La Grenade was suddenly and tragically killed in June of 1991 in a car accident in Maryland, USA. She was mourned by many thousands in Grenada and abroad, outside of her family. Her death was front page news only because of the virtues that she expoused and lived by. She exuded Love, Generosity, Compassion, Grace and Charm and great Intelligence with vision - to her family who remember her as such, but also to so many others.
