Celebrating Heroes: Retired educator still going the extra mile for others

Lettuce May Broodie-Brown has been giving yeoman service to the parish of Trelawny since 1963.

This was when her career as a teacher began in her home district of Ulster Spring.

"I started as a pupil teacher after success in the Third Jamaica Local (a teacher qualification). I improved my education at Canewood Junior College and then Bethlehem Teachers' College (Bethlehem Moravian College)," she told WESTERN STAR.

She said that she taught at several schools in Trelawny before settling at Falmouth All-Age when she got married to Dereck Brown in 1967. " I moved from classroom teacher to the position of principal before my retirement."

The Rev Novlyn Hanson, pastor at the United Church in Falmouth, where Brown is an elder and a treasurer, describes her as "a mother of mothers who is compassionate and caring. She goes the extra mile to please young and old. Mrs Brown is very active in the Church and will do anything to advance the Church's ministry".

She has also been a justice of the peace (JP) since 2002.

"I get great satisfaction from serving my people. Being a JP to me is like a job. I have a desk on my verandah for the services of a justice, and people come Sunday to Sunday despite the sign I have on the grille."

The mother of two and grandmother of two said her late husband, who died in January 2016, bequeathed his benevolence to her.

"He used to feed some of the street people. They still come stand by the gate and use their eyes to tell me they are hungry. I live alone, but I cook enough so they can be fed when they come," she said.

Brown declared that only sickness and death can stop her from doing what she does.

"If I had to live my life over, I would live it along the same pathway," she said.