Growing up with two matriarchs in the home taught Lisa Thompson, 53, a counsellor, social worker, researcher, administrator and artist, the value of being independent through education, acquiring a life skill and of integrity in spite of many of life’s challenges.
“My three siblings and I grew up very close, learning household chores together. We were poor and content, but we didn’t know we were poor until we travelled. I had a happy childhood in spite of my father who was violent and who used to stalk and threaten my mother’s life,” Thompson said.
Her parents divorced when she was eight years old. She grew up at Adventure, Essequibo Coast with her mother Lynette Ho-Shing Sylvester and grandmother Clarice Myers, who made Thompson and her siblings feel loved, safe and secure. “They believed and I believe, we should strive to live with integrity because our lives influence and inform children and people in general,” she noted.