Not having an education and enduring a lot of struggles in life, did not stop 58-year-old Elaine Persaud from overcoming them and using her cheerful character to share positivity via social media.
It started out with Persaud, of Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, sharing live or recorded videos on Facebook of her cooking, to a small group of friends and relatives on her page.
Before she knew it her videos were going viral on the social media platform. Other people started following her and look forward to watching her videos.
Elaine, who grew up in an abusive home and whose father, Dwarka Persaud, called ‘Sonny Spokes,’ was murdered when she was just eight-years-old, was shocked at the tremendous response she received.
Her granddaughter, Rachel, helped her to create a Facebook page, titled, ‘Elaine and Family Kitchen’, where she brings viewers into her humble kitchen.
In the videos, which are about three to 30 minutes long, she cooks and shares her recipes or just simply shows the food she had prepared.
Her pleasant, ‘sing-song’ voice has been heartwarming for many of the viewers, even though her videos, one of which has attracted close to 100,000 views, are done in her broken Guyanese dialect.
She can be described as a ‘natural’ and often receives compliments for being bold enough to “put herself out there,” even though she is subjected to harsh comments at times.
Unable to “read and write,” as her circumstances resulted in her dropping out of school at age eight, her daughter, Esha and Rachel read and respond to the comments and help to write her posts.
Being a confident person, she takes the harsh comments in stride and uses them as a way of improving her standards. She nevertheless, would prefer if they were kind with their comments and in some of the videos she asked her followers to “forgive me if I make a mistake.”
She also focuses on the positive comments and sees them as motivation to continue doing what she loves.
Elaine told this newspaper that she was overjoyed when a bread company, Demerara Bakery, that uses the name DemBake on their packaging, contacted her to promote their products.
Recently, she went live for about half an hour, as she removed items from a bag that the bakery had dropped off. The items included colour-coded packages of two shades of multigrain bread, white bread, tennis rolls and burger buns, as well as a cutting board, a lunch bag, a spoon and a water bottle, all with the company’s logo.
She then demonstrated how to make fish burgers, starting with seasoning and frying pieces of fish and garnishing them with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce and a homemade sauce. She then served it to family members who declared how delicious it was.
Income
The mother of six, who shares her home with her grandson, Nick, 20, earned an income making food items and selling them from a small stall in front of her home.
It was not that feasible though, and a few months ago she posted on her page that she was looking for a regular job. Shortly after she received a call from a family at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara that they were interested in hiring her. She has already developed a close bond with this family.
Since she started, she shared a few videos of the food she had prepared and of her employers’ beautiful flower garden. A few days before her promotional video, she went live, while cooking crab curry on a brick fireside and baking pizza and grilling chicken, beef and prawns in an attached brick oven.
Elaine’s skills in doing the videos came from her eldest daughter, Sandy, who resides in Florida and who has a Facebook page; ‘Sandy’s Backyard Kitchen/Garden,’ that has attracted a huge following.
Sandy shares live Facebook videos, mainly as she cooks on a fireside in her backyard amid her vegetable and flower garden, and of people and places she visits.
Her page was also created after she started sharing live videos for her Facebook contacts. Recognizing her talents, her friends encouraged her to start a YouTube channel as well. A few months ago, she took up the challenge.
Elaine has also been featured in Sandy’s videos that were done in Florida as well as in Guyana, when she visited with her husband, Tommy, a realtor and her son, John, 18, an aspiring chef who also plans to start his own YouTube channel.
Another daughter, Monica, who lives in California with her family, also does live Facebook videos. Esha and two other daughters, Zorine and Varon and her son, Moses, reside in Guyana.
Fatally stabbed
Elaine still remembers that horrifying night when her father met his gruesome demise. At the time they were living at Dochfour, Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara.
She recalled that she and her siblings were asleep on their makeshift beds on the floor while their parents were sleeping in their bedroom when a man entered through a glass window near the stairs.
The man, who had an old grievance with her father, dealt him several stab wounds to his abdomen before pulling out the knife, leaving him to bleed profusely.
Her mother, Drupattie, who was lying next to him, ran to the window and screamed for help. The perpetrator then turned his attention to her, stabbing her as well. Her mother was eight months pregnant.
Neighbours ran to their rescue and transported them to the hospital in a boat, while other residents kept her and her siblings at their home.
Her father was pronounced dead on arrival while her mother was placed in a “dark room.” Drupattie only found out her husband had died, two weeks later, when relatives were finally allowed to visit and she inquired about his well-being.
The woman gave birth to a baby boy but he only lived to a few months, as he suffered an injury to his heart.
Elaine, who started school late, was forced to drop out to take care of her siblings. Her mother had to become the bread-winner and started a business as a fish and shrimp vendor.
At age 10, she started doing domestic work to assist with the finances in the home. She worked for a family who owned a fishing boat and would get some of the catch to take home.
At 11-years-old, she also started taking care of two children whose mother had been murdered. By the time she was 15-years-old, her mother felt it was time for her to get married and found her a ‘match.’ Her employers pitched in with the expenses.
The marriage was never a happy one though, as her now deceased husband, a cane-cutter, consumed a lot of alcohol and hardly had time for her. He also had an anger problem that caused Elaine to be afraid of him.
Apart from that she faced a tough life financially because her husband, whose father had gotten burned with “fire water” and died, was tasked with taking care of his mother and younger siblings with his meagre income.
During the out-of-crop season he worked on a farm. Three months before he died by natural causes, he had been upgraded to a fitter machinist with increased pay.
Elaine was 34-years-old then. The following year she ended up in a relationship with another man who she thought would provide her with a better life. Instead, it was the total opposite, as the man also consumed a lot of alcohol, was verbally abusive, and was always in trouble with the police. Apart from that though, she recalled he “did some good things for me and was a nice person when he was not drunk.”
Her last daughter, Esha, was born from that union. Elaine had started doing domestic work shortly after meeting him, but had to quit after she became sick during the pregnancy.
She found the courage to leave him about two years ago and has finally gained a sense of freedom and independence.
Elaine says that being positive and bringing others into her life through her videos has given her happiness. She encouraged others to rise above their difficulties and focus on all the good that life has to offer.
She thanks her followers for watching her videos and for liking and sharing them.