From Island Girl to National Hero

By Heather McLaughlin

Mrs. Sybil Ione McLaughlin, MBE, JP, nee Bush was declared a National Hero by the Government of the Cayman Islands in 1996. She was the second individual, the first living person and the first woman to be so honoured. 

 

Raised largely by her maiden aunts in South Sound, this unassuming, hard-working woman who began her career with the Government in 1945 as a clerk-typist - and whose duties sometimes included counting dead rabbit and parrot heads (on which a bounty was paid at that time) - had been awarded the highest honour that the Cayman Islands Government could bestow.

 

This is her story. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: CLM Publishing
• Release date: Apr 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201373160

Heather McLaughlin

Another “Island girl”, Heather R. McLaughlin was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada but went to Jamaica to teach in a mission school in 1963. She moved to Cayman with her husband, the late Ray McLaughlin and son Michael in 1977 and Cayman has been home ever since. After teaching at the Cayman Islands High School for 13 years, she accepted the post of Memory Bank Coordinator at the CI National Archive in 1990. Heather has recorded the memories of hundreds of Caymanians for the Archive’s Oral History section and has had several articles and papers published as well as two books, Cayman Yesterdays and The ‘32 Storm. She lives in George Town and is an active member of First Baptist Church. “I am a huge Ms. Sybil fan”, declares Heather, “and it has been a great pleasure and privilege to write about this amazing lady and her very eventful life”.

Book preview

Introduction

Mrs. Sybil Ione McLaughlin, MBE, JP, nee Bush was declared a National Hero by the Government of the Cayman Islands in 1996. She was the second individual, the first living person and the first woman to be so honoured.

Raised largely by her maiden aunts in South Sound, this unassuming, hard-working woman who began her career with the Government in 1945 as a clerk-typist - and whose duties sometimes included counting dead rabbit and parrot heads (on which a bounty was paid at that time) - had been awarded the highest honour that the Cayman Islands Government could bestow.

This is her story.

The family of Sybil McLaughlin is grateful to Heather R. McLaughlin for her dedication and care in recounting the life story of a wonderful woman.

Chapter One

Sybil I. McLaughlin, although a Cayman Island girl to the core, was actually born in Mobile, Alabama. Her father, Captain Charles Christopher Bush Junior of South Sound, Grand Cayman, had gone to the USA as a very young man. After a stint in the US Army during WWI, following the Caymanian sea-going tradition, he went to sea.

Eventually he became a Master Mariner, and because he was sailing out of Mobile, Alabama, he made his home there. It was in Mobile that he met a beautiful young woman from Cayman Brac, Lottie Verona Morton. Lottie had gone to Mobile, where there was quite a large community of Caymanians, to find work. The couple married, and in time their children Elizabeth, Charles and, in 1928, Sybil were born.

Charles’ sister Annie was staying with the couple at the time of Sybil’s birth – Annie had been unwell for some time. Her father, following Dr. Overton’s advice, had sent her to visit Charles and Lottie in the hopes that the change would do her good. It did.

Although Lottie insisted on taking her to a doctor in Mobile a couple of times, Annie was given a clean bill of health each time. Many years later, Annie spoke fondly of her sister-in-law and the kindness that had been extended to her during that visit. A bond was forged between the two women, which would be remembered by Lottie and have a lasting effect on her young family.

Since Annie wanted to be a nurse since childhood, she was a big help to Lottie with her growing family. There was some confusion over the date of Sybil’s arrival in this world; her birth certificate records the day as August 24th, but Annie always insisted that it was actually the 28th. I should know; I was there, she was heard to declare stoutly whenever the subject arose.

Annie returned to Cayman where she completed her nurse’s training. A couple of years later, in 1930, tragedy struck the young family in Mobile. Charles became ill and subsequently died.

Lottie, grieving, with three young children and pregnant with the fourth, was in a dire situation. Having lost their bread-winner, the family was soon in financial difficulties. Their home had to be sold, and Lottie was faced with some hard choices. She eventually made the decision to take her children to her husband’s family in South Sound. This was in the days before telephone or even telegraph had become available in the Cayman Islands, and the mail boat visited only every three weeks.

One can only imagine how very hard it was for the pregnant young widow; making the arrangements, getting passage on a ship and then coping with the rigors of the voyage - likely on one of the local vessels more equipped for carrying turtles or cargo than passengers - with three young children. They arrived safely, however, and the Bush family, especially Annie, welcomed them with open arms.

They moved into the family home with Sybil’s grandparents, Captain Charles Christopher Senior and Annie Elizabeth Bush, plus their two youngest daughters, Annie and Rebertha. ‘Aunt Annie’ was quickly shortened to Tannie by the children. Rebertha was referred to by everyone as simply ‘B’, Aunt B to the children. Their Aunt Katie Hurlston lived nearby with her family. There were several other relatives living not far away too.

Surrounded by a loving family and many relatives, the children quickly settled into their new home. Lottie renewed her friendship with Annie, and before long the baby was born. He was named James, perhaps for his father’s brother, James Bush, but there is another possibility.

Birth records for Cayman Brac reveal that in 1900, James William Morton and his wife Elmira had a daughter whom they named Sybil. It is very likely that Lottie had named her daughter ‘Sybil’ after Sybil Morton and then named her son after James Morton.

After Lottie had recovered from the birth, she began to feel that she needed to do something to improve the family’s situation. Jobs for women were few and far between in Cayman at that time, and the logical course of action for her was to return to the U.S. and seek employment.

Holding down a job and caring for four children on her own was just not possible, however. Seeing how well the three older children had settled into life in Cayman and how much the two aunts, Annie and B, doted on them, Lottie made another very difficult decision. With the full support of all of her in-laws, she returned to the U.S. to seek work, taking baby James–about six months old - with her and leaving the three older children with their grandparents and aunts.

Lottie had every intention of sending for the rest of the children quickly, but the Great Depression was by this time affecting all of the U.S. Jobs were scarce and times were hard, making this impossible. It would be several years before they saw each other again.

Children are amazingly resilient. Elizabeth, Charles and Sybil adapted quickly and happily to their new circumstances. Sybil remembers that Aunt B, besides running the South Sound Postal Agency from the home, kept chickens. These were allowed out of their coop in the early evening to have a bit of a run.

Just before darkness fell, Aunt B would call the flock in. Sybil and the other two enjoyed helping her gather them up. The routine included counting each one as it entered the pen to make sure that none were missing. Corralling and counting the fluttering chickens was very exciting for the children, accustomed as they were to life in a city. The novelty of having people stop by the house to buy stamps, post letters and collect mail was also very interesting to the children.

Each day a postman would cycle out from the main post office in George Town with the mail for South Sound, taking back with him any letters that were to be posted. An American couple, who had a holiday home nearby for use in the cooler months, were perhaps her best customers. Avid fishermen, they would drop off their outgoing letters with Aunt B very early in the morning as they were on their way to their boat. After fishing all day, they stopped by on the way home in the evening to see if any mail had arrived for them.

Aunt Annie was a nurse and cycled to work each day to care for private patients. Later, after the first hospital was established in George Town in 1947, she was the first nurse on the staff. Possibly she inherited her nursing proclivity from her mother, as Sybil remembers her grandmother caring for her when she had a bad cough as a small child. Her grandmother rubbed her chest with Vicks and then wrapped it with a piece of flannel that she had warmed by wrapping it briefly around the chimney of a lit lamp.

Sybil also remembers her grandmother always wore heavily-starched petticoats which rustled when she walked. You could always hear her coming, reminisced Sybil in 2012.

Grandfather Bush, usually rather stern, enjoyed telling jokes, some of which did not meet with the approval of his wife. Although small in stature, she obviously had an air of authority – in the midst of the joke-telling she would say, Now Charles, that’s enough of that, and Grandfather would desist. Grandfather owned a Model T Ford, one of the first on the island.

Sybil remembers the broad running boards and the adventure of being taken for a car ride; she and her sister stood on those running boards, holding on tightly. The drives would be short as there were few roads suitable for cars in the early ‘30s, but Grandfather was an extremely careful driver. When they came to a crossroads, he would park the car, get out, and look to see if anything was coming, and then get back in the car and drive on.

Living nearby was Aunt Katie Hurlston and her family. Sybil had a case of hero worship for Katie’s son, Dell. Although Dell was several years older than Sybil, she thought that he was wonderful and remembers constantly following him around.

In later years she reflected on the fact that although this habit must have been very annoying to him, he never lost patience with her. By her own admission, Sybil was something of a tomboy. Among other things, she loved to climb trees, so much so that the other children in the neighbourhood gave her the nickname ‘Monkey’.

The first couple of years passed pleasantly for the children, with the two aunts stepping in and giving them the love, affection and guidance their mother could no longer provide. They were very careful of us, Sybil remarked, speaking of the aunts. Aunt B did most of the cooking. There were always heavy cakes on Sunday – cassava cakes were then and still are, Sybil’s favourite.

Aunt Annie sewed, and Sybil remembers always getting a new dress on her birthday as well as for Christmas and Easter. There were letters from their mother, of course, but they were few and far between since the boat carrying mail only came to Cayman every three weeks. To the aunts’ credit, while showering loving care and attention on the children, they never let them forget their mother.

Sundays were special days, reserved for attending church and Sunday school. Preparations were made on Saturday – Sybil remembers having to make sure that her shoes were clean. Her aunts were very much involved in the life of the church. Besides playing the organ for services, Annie was a Sunday school teacher as was Aunt Katie. Sometimes the children were taken for a swim in the afternoon. In the evenings Annie and B, accompanied by the children, went to church early to light the Tilly lamps for the evening service. Sybil enjoyed all of this, and church continues to be a vital part of Sybil’s life.

Behind the home were many fruit trees and a large garden, or provision ground, where they grew all the vegetables the family needed. Uncle Carl or one of the other extended family members kept them supplied with fish. Of course, there were also Aunt B’s chickens. It was a pleasant, peaceful life for them all.

Then an event occurred in November 1932 that shattered the peace and security of the Bush family and everyone in the Cayman Islands. An extremely strong hurricane, known simply as the ’32 storm,¹ devastated the islands. Until Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004, it was the worst hurricane to hit the Cayman Islands. In fact, the ’32 storm still stands in the record books as the worst ever in terms of loss of life. Although Sybil was only four years old at the time, she has vivid memories of that event.

We knew the storm was coming. The house was much bigger than it is now. There was a whole piece in the front with two double rooms [and] a little passageway. Grandfather had to tie the house down, because the house was sort of raised up - we could always get under the floor as we called it, you know, and play some games. So he could get the ropes right under and tie down the zinc so that it wouldn’t fly off [the ropes were passed over the roof and down under the house and then tied].

So we went to bed; it was my sister, my brother and myself in this big, big bed fast asleep, and then my grandmother came in. She was a very short lady, and she came in with a white dress on, and then I saw her go to the bureau, and she started to take out some clothes. So I said, Grandmother, what are you doing? She said, Well, I am packing.’ So I said, Why are you packing? She said, Well, blessed Jesus might come tonight. That’s what she said in order not to frighten us or anything. So I said, Be sure to put in my good dresses.

"I don’t remember any more until next morning. I went outside, and all the back was flooded; you could have sailed a boat on it, and we walked down the road and a couple of fish and conch were lying in the road as we went down. That is about all I remember – my cousin and some of the other boys, they had run down to the beach to see the big waves coming in, but we were not allowed to do that. I don’t remember the part about my Uncle Carl and the story about him going out to try to anchor the Diamond, but I heard about that later".²

The flooding in the back was from sea water. In 1990 Annie said, "The sea washed over [the road] and drained down in our backyard. It was like a running stream, down in our