From bush beds to Buckingham Palace
IT WAS a dream come true for Albert Uter to be able to leave the suffering that he had come to know and seek a better life in a foreign country.
But it was not as easy to get where he wanted to, and it mostly definitely was not smooth sailing when he did manage to leave.
“My friend had got through to go to England and was going by boat. I walked down with him that day he was leaving, and we cried. That Saturday night I never slept. I laid there, and I was looking straight into England, a place I did not know … .”
The following day, Uter borrowed a bicycle and rode to his aunt, who was living in Vineyard Town, Kingston, to seek assistance with the fee that could get him into the Queen’s land.
“The cost was about 70 or 80 pounds then, and that was a pretty steep hill to climb. I told my aunt that I had half and asked her if she could loan me the rest, but honestly, I had no money. She asked me if I had a passport, and I told her no. She told me where I could get it, and the Monday, I rode from Kingston to Spanish Town on bicycle to apply for my birth certificate so I could go and get my passport.”
Uter said he became excited at the prospects and began saving extensively and accepting all the help he could get in the process for what he knew would be a better life.
“I managed to make it to England, and I knew nowhere, but because I lived in Kingston and got used to finding my way around, I did the same thing there. I started looking for a job, but the first job I got, I was fired the same day. How they did things here in Jamaica is different from how it is done in England, and the supervisor did not know it was my first job in England.”
Uter’s friend, who had travelled to England before him, became his support system in England, and much like the pattern their lives had taken in Jamaica, their lives in England mirrored that.
“We shared the apartment and split the bills until I got an apartment for myself. I changed several jobs because I thought the pay and the treatment was not good. I was always looking for better.”
That is when Uter saw a vacancy for a carpenter at Buckingham Palace, and he quickly applied.
“There were more Whites than Blacks, and there were sections where people didn’t really go that much. It was dirty, and that is where they would send the Black men. After a while, I spoke to the supervisor about the conditions, and it seemed as though it was the first time a Black man was talking to him that way. He eventually sent me over to where the White men were.”
TURN FOR THE WORSE
After 10 months, Uter said he got a new supervisor, and things took a turn for the worse.
“I ended up leaving Buckingham Palace, and it was a blessing in disguise. I started working with a company, and for the 11 years I was in England, I spent eight years with that company.
But Uter had enough of the climate. He had met the love of his life and felt he was now in a better place to sustain himself back in Jamaica.
“I had to come home for medical reasons, too. As a child, while I was playing with two boys, I sustained injuries that cause a huge swelling on my neck. I went to a doctor in Mandeville and Kingston and they misdiagnosed and mistreated me. It was when I went to England that they told me I had a defective spine. If I didn’t go to England and get treated, I probably would have been dead already.”
Uter returned to Jamaica with his wife and took up work at the bauxite company Alcan, where he spent 21 years.
Not only did he manage to set up a decent life for his family here, but for 25 years, Uter had his mother living with him despite being abandoned by her at age four.
These days, he says he spends his time being grateful for the experiences and how they shaped his life while helping those who need a word of encouragement.
“Hardly a week passes that I don’t encourage a young person. If I got half the help some of these youngsters get, I would have been better off. Even my son, I do as much as I could for him as a father because I don’t want him to go through what I went through,” Uter said.