Viral road safety poet Janice Carmichael says writing saved her sanity
With a dream to one day publish a book, 54-yearold Janice Carmichael of East Bank Berbice has faced her every struggle head-on; using writing as an outlet to pour out her emotions and express herself.
For the former teacher and police corporal, writing is her favourite hobby. A mother of six and a resident of Glasgow Housing Scheme, Carmichael has had a tough life but she never gave up on herself and always remained content with whatever she had.
She recalled that being the last born in her family she faced a lot of correction from her siblings and parents and so to vent her frustration she wrote. Ultimately, her love for putting pen to paper grew. “Everyone had their own way to correct you, and in a way, I didn’t feel loved and appreciated,” she recalled. “I started writing my feelings and so I ended up spending most of my time writing.”
Born in a riverine area, Carmichael detailed how due to circumstances she was not able to finish high school. She had been attending the New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary School and staying with relatives. However, due to certain issues she had to drop out of school. “Staying with relatives is difficult and sometimes you had to move from one place to the next, it was hard…,” she said.
But she did not give up on herself. She attended a training school in New Amsterdam where she gained knowledge in English and typewriting – a much-needed skill to gain employment during that period. She soon started her adult life in a common-law union with her children’s father.
She then became a teacher. Living in a house with her common-law husband and children, she thought it was the beginning of her fairytale-like life. However, that was far from the truth, as she faced constant emotional abuse.
She stressed that although her partner at the time never physically assaulted her, the other forms of abuse still did massive damage to her self-confidence. “There was a lot of difficulties experiencing domestic problems. I was in a common-law relationship and [he] was influenced by relatives and things weren’t going well. He never physically abused me but mentally and financially,” she related.
Some 20 years ago, Carmichael’s partner walked out and began living with someone else, leaving her as a single parent to fend for her children. Describing that period as one of the most difficult times of her life, she recalled that she told herself if she could have separated from her parents and start a life then she could also separate from her partner and do the same all over again. “I told myself I can survive—learn to deal with it,” she said.
She had to leave the home she had shared with her partner and had nowhere to go. She said a few friends assisted her to build a makeshift camp where when it rained she had to take her children and run to the closest friend’s house to take cover.
She started doing odd jobs as at that time she had quit teaching after eight
years due to the pressures she faced at home. “I did… baking, cooking, helping children with homework and people would give you a little $1,000 and $500 and so I tried to make it work for me,” she said.
She kept telling herself that she could make it work as long as she stayed positive looking ahead with the possibility of having a bright future. “No matter how many times you fall and how hard you fall, …you must have a willingness to pick yourself up. You must have hope that things will be better; see that silver lining. [Tell yourself] I have to get out of this, make the effort, look around, and help yourself,” she said.
“Be a thinker. You have to be a thinker… What next? Planning what you would like to see in the future for yourself.”
During that period of her life, Carmichael documented every step, filling dozens of notebooks with writing.
She said she pushed herself to ensure that each of her children received a sound education, as she felt no matter what they were to face in life, once they had an education each of them could stand on their
own two feet.
She built her own house and then decided to join the neighbourhood policing group in her community. “I realised that I could be neighbourhood police, work in my own community and look after my children… I wouldn’t have to leave them and go far,” she said. Eventually, she was converted to a special constable in the Guyana Police Force and is now a corporal – something she is extremely proud of.
Writing
Recently, Carmichael went viral on social media after she compiled a video of her poem about road safety. She said initially it was for a competition being held by Massy but that she never expected it to go viral.
Her 23-year-old daughter, a nurse, encouraged her and assisted her with the video, which has since had thousands of views and shares on social media.
“My hobby is writing and I love to write poems,” she explained. “As I sit sometimes things would come to me, and I would see what is going on and put it into writing, simple words.”
Her dream is to one day
publish a book with all of her poems as she has already written numerous.
“People would invite me to go places and speak or write things for them for funerals, for weddings, I just love writing and I try to help out,” she said. “Writing to express yourself is very helpful. Writing when you have situations, you have problems, instead of it being pent up inside, writing brings a relief… I believe if I was not doing that, I would have been in the mental [institution]. When you focus on writing sometimes you are writing and you’re crying and at the end of that there is a relief and then sometimes you write a little piece and say a few words, poetic form.
It has caused me to find friends, people come and ask to write and I just love doing that.”
While at the moment she cannot afford to publish her book, she is hoping that she can receive funding in the future to possibly do so. Her book, she said, would be “...basic real talk, poems, various domestic violence issues, policing in general, poems about the different seasons, etc.”