Tiffiny's Story "Scrap Mat in Guyana"

Digital Story from the Bawso Stories Project.

 

Tiffiny’s story, “Scrap mat in Guyana”, was inspired by a visit to National Slate Museum, Llanberis. Seeing a scrap mat at the Chief Engineer's house brought back memories of childhood, when the narrator unknowingly used their mother's cherished dress for a school project. Years later, with her first salary, Tiffany fulfilled a promise to buy her mother new dresses.

 

English transcript: While visiting the Chief Engineer’s house the first thing I recognised was the scrap mat in the dining area. It reminded me of my primary school days. I went to one of those under-privileged, under-funded primary schools whereby we relied heavily on contributions to buy supplies. So, every Friday we had arts and craft, and our teachers would encourage us to bring like little old pieces of clothing to make scrap mats. So every Saturday we had farmer’s market, so whatever we made on Friday, it would go to the farmers market, and they’d sell it to buy supplies. My family wasn’t rich, we were quite poor. My mom had one proper dress, I remember it was a gorgeous lilac dress, she loved it, she wore it to every wedding, every special occasion. I remember that Friday morning in particular, I kept pestering her, I need some clothes to take to school to make the mat and for some odd reason, her favourite dress ended up in a pile for me to take to school. I didn’t think much of it, maybe she had some money saved and she was going to get a new dress, she wanted to get rid of this one because it was practically worn. I took it to school, and I made the best scrap mat ever, and it was sold in the market.

 

So the Sunday my mom had a function at church to go to and she couldn’t find this dress, she couldn’t find it, no matter where she looked, she couldn’t find it. She searched high and low for that dress to go to church, and then she put two and two together and figured out, you know, I took it to school, and it was made into a scrap mat. I remember how sad she was because she couldn’t afford a new one, we couldn’t afford it. And I vowed that whenever I started working I’d take her shopping. So I remember completing my studies in nursing school. I got my first job, my first salary at 20 and it was very close to Christmas, and I remember taking my mom shopping and I bought her three new dresses as promised and I can remember her smiling. I could never forget that smile. And as soon as I walked in and I saw the scrap mat it took me back to my childhood, it did, it really did.