Lance Dowrich (TRINIDAD & TOBAGO)


Samson Street was a dead end. But it came alive the day of Tantie Lucy’s Thanksgiving service for Saxxy. The street was smack in the middle of a typical working class neighbourhood in downtown Port of Spain just east of the Anglican Cathedral, an impressive edifice which reminded all of the British colonial period in Trinidad and Tobago. Tantie Lucy’s old board house, nestled between two larger dwellings at the end of Samson Street, was a magnet. The flow of people to the small parlour shop which stood to the front of the house was more regular than water to the pipes in homes in Port of Spain. The shop was much more than a convenience store: it was a watering hole, counsellor’s sanctuary and place of refuge. People were there at any hour on any given day to get their needs. Even those who did not need anything could…