Thirty-seven years ago Beverley Drake fulfilled her father’s dream as much as her own, and as he watched his daughter become one of Guyana’s first military pilots, his facial expression reflected his pride and joy.
It was to the same airport Beverley or ‘Bevy’, as her father Clive Drake fondly called her, had gone with her dad when she was young to watch aircraft take off, and she knew from that time that his ultimate dream was to see one of his two daughters achieve what he never could ‒ become a pilot.
“My dad always wanted to be a pilot, but being a black man in the 1940s and not being rich, he never had an opportunity. I think he really wanted one of his daughters to pursue his dream, and as I was the ‘tomboy’ in the family and not scared of heights, I lived