STORIES OF OUR FAMILIES
To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root.
Hurricane Janet, Barbados
22nd September 1955
Told by my great-grandmother
"Raeburn", Hastings - the enclosed gallery faced the front yard and coast road. All the bedrooms overlooked the beach and sea.
My great-grandmother was Lillian Lobo, wife of Isaac Clement Lobo. In 1955 she was almost 83 years old, a widow. She lived on the south coast of Barbados in a house called "Raeburn", situated on the beach side of Hastings, a short distance away from the Ocean View Hotel and other Barbadian residences - all of which have now been demolished. At the foot of this page I have included a link to family photos of the old family home.
Granny Lobo, as we called her, was the mother of ten children, several of whom had immigrated to the USA. She wrote to her youngest daughter Freida in America about her experience and feelings when Hurricane Janet hit the island. In the letter she tells that Frank, her son who lived in Trinidad, came to visit and help her. She writes about how her granddaughter Marylin is affected by the hurricane. Marylin is her son Frank's daughter who was staying with her at the time.
The handwritten letter is a treasured family keepsake.
Raeburn, Hastings
Nov 6th 1955
My dear Freida,
This is a very long overdue letter but I know you will understand, I have been through such a terrible ordeal for my age, what with the storm and a few days after we had a downpour of rain and the roof poured like a tap turned on. I lost my nerve and had a hearty cry.
The hoods to the windows blew off and broke the Everite of the roof and glass window. They went in Miss Chandler’s yard. Crowds of shingles blew off, gutter-heads, down pipes all blew down and broke.
The downstairs door - the break water iron and big stones dashed against the door and broke it open and the sea all came in. We did not have light for eleven days, only 2 lamps and torches. No telephone, the well to the toilets all filled up with sand and choked one. I had to pay $15.00 to 2 men to clear it. I had to put on 16 bundles of shingles. I had 3 workmen for 4 weeks from one thing to the other, but it could have been worse. The church got hit the hardest, I believe 5 out of every 6 houses were flat, thousands are homeless. Plenty of nice new houses in Marine Gardens the roofs came off and the people had to run for shelter. You remember Kenneth and Reyland Davis’s house Santa Neta opposite The Rocks, well that has only the 4 walls standing. They had to run next door, lost everything. Frank came over to see what had happened to us 2 days after, because no planes were flying during that time. He stood a day and a half and brought over plenty groceries for me knowing we may have been short and he said the water came to his eyes coming over the island to see the houses flat. He would not even go any further he said his nerves wouldn’t stand it. All the beautiful trees blown down and the leaves scorched. We are all bare now. If it had have lasted 1/2 hour longer our gallery roof started to lift. The wind was 125 miles an hour. Outside sounded just like a lot of cats howling. Poor little Marilyn threw up 3 times for the day. And then trees across the streets, telephone posts . . .
Kenneth and Reyland Davis’s house "Santa Neta" opposite The Rocks
"Raeburn" - Lobo Family home on the coast line of Hastings, Christ Church, Barbados from 1914 - 1963
Click here to view family photos of RAEBURN