As announced earlier, on Friday evening, March 16, 2018, at the Montserrat Cultural Centre six individuals who stood out as having had a significant and a positive impact on Montserrat were recognized in the 2018 national honours and awards ceremony.
Mr. William Fred White Bodkin, Reverend Dr Beatrice Allen and to Mr. Cecil Cepekee Lake received the Order of Merit for meritorious contributions to national development.
Rev. Allen, recognized for a contribution and a longstanding work in the areas of religion and community service she accepted the award with grace and humility. “I did not know in my wildest dreams see this coming. Neither from a distance nor closeup. This has taken me completely by surprise, she said. I thank God for giving me the opportunity, strength and desire to serve my community over these years, thanking her family for their support and guidance all the way.
“I look back with humble joy and personal satisfaction at my early days in the classroom and in the Library service and in the ministry of the church. It has all been a rewarding journey that has given purpose and meaning to all my efforts; and so I say hitherto hath the Lord helped me.”
Cecil Cepekee Lake who for his contribution to the Arts and culture specifically for his numerous contributions to the Calypso art form, accept his award. Lake who was then recovering from a serious illness shared an emotional response. “Now on occasions like this, you would want to prepare your laundry list but I don’t think time would allow me to go through all the names but let me first give God thanks because I think you know what happened to me. He deserves all the thanks and all the praise. And you could probably just say a little prayer, three lines. For me, to live is Christ. For I know He will never leave me. For you are my God, Amen,” he said with some emotion.
Meanwhile, the order of distinction was bestowed upon retired teacher Miss Menelva Greenaway, for her distinguished and outstanding service in the areas of education, religion and community service, “I enjoyed working with children because I just loved them and fortunately I worked with head teachers who taught to me to teach, and staff teachers who when I became a head teacher were very supportive, and we were therefore able to accomplish quite a number of feats in the primary schools. In the village of Corkhill, the Only Corkhill, the best a village in Montserrat, my neighbours, they were very supportive and I appreciated it, I learned a lot from them.
Mrs. Margaret Mary Dyer-Howe and Dr. Lowell Lewis accepted the Order of excellence for their extraordinary and nonwavering commitment and distinguished service to the development of Montserrat. Mrs. Dyer-Howe’s husband Robert received the award in her absence for her service in the socio-economic development of Montserrat.
Meanwhile Dr. Lewis upon receiving his award for his service in the practice of medicine, politics, the public and community, as he paid tribute to the nurses, doctors and health care professionals who have been instrumental in his career to date, had this to say: “…I have to mention the fact that without my health colleagues here I would not have been able to do anything, and I would hope that this honor is part of the honor bestowed upon them. We’ve worked miracles. In particular, I’m going to talk about 400 operations a year. It is a lot of work but what is most important is that of the probably three/four thousand surgeries I did, I never lost any patients from anesthetic deaths, so, I have to give credit to Dr. Perkins,” he said.
Not finished he continued: “I need to go back a little bit to hurricane period and the things that we did at the old school room where we still are, (St. John’s school) where patients were lying on the floor; and nurses I cannot say in enough words of the respect I have for all those nurses, who allowed us to continue serving to the people of Montserrat for next to nothing
“During that time I was a lecturing surgery University of West Indies in Barbados and I came back every two weeks or so to do surgery and look after patients. Occasionally I would say to my Registrar, hold on for me today I’ve got a man in Montserrat who needs an operation and I would fly down, do the operation and go back. So, it was a privilege to serve.”
Of the other recipient Excellence Award recipient, Mrs. Margaret (Annie) Dyer-Howe, he said:
“When she really became Minister of Health in 1983 and she heard I was coming home to be the island’s surgeon, through Dr. Wooding – I got a message saying ‘can he do public health as well?’ I quit my surgical training and took the year in public health so I got a diploma in public health, and so we had a surgeon and Chief Medical Officer in one stroke.
“And just before I came back they also said you better do some obstetrics and gynecology as well you know. So, while I was doing the public health I had three months with an obstetrics unit – and I became an expert at that as well.
Thus he concluded, “Mrs. Annie Dyer-Howe, I thank her very much for being an instrument in my career.”
