Lilli Mae in Montego Bay, Jamaica - Family Unions, Reunions and "Mission Complete"?
Lilli Mae
Linton
Sun 12 Mar 2023 23:37
Hi Everyone, hope you are all well? We are in Ocho Rios at the moment; below is the view from our balcony right now and on the night we arrived. Beautiful!   There are so many amazing members of the Linton family including our parents. Our parents were part of the “Windrush" generation who came to the motherland (UK) in the early 50’s. Their ambition and strive for progress is what has given our families the opportunities to build better lives than they had. We have not talked about them much but their journey is always in our memory and thought. However it is two family members Lillian (left below) and May who have been at the centre of our trip to Mo’Bay. The twin sisters born in 1908 in Westmorland, Jamaica who are our (maternal) Grand Mother and Great Aunt.  Since our arrival we have been busy coordinating and “herding” family members. We had our family get-together on Tuesday (7th) in the afternoon. It was great. Most of the family members who were with us at the BBQ were descendants of Lillian.    We had a BBQ on the green at the yacht club; Our sister Yvonne and husband Bob came from Mandeville, our nephew Steven from Ocho Rios, Andrew and Emily from Toronto, James and our little brother David with his family all flew in from London. Some of us had not seen each other for quite sometime and in fact some family members had not met at all! The yacht club did a good job of feeding us and keeping the rum punch and other cocktails flowing  Some of Emily’s family came to visit too. Scott and Fiona (Emily’s Aunt and Uncle from Arbroath, Scotland) just happened to be stopping in Montego Bay for 1 night on the 7th March as part of their Caribbean vacation cruise. What a coincidence! Last time we were with them was when (by coincidence) they were in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on vacation when we had just arrived from Gibraltar in October last year. It was great to see them and to have them meet the Linton clan.  A lot of Lillian’s Great-grandchildren were together in Mo’Bay (in picture above). Indeed Tyreese (second from the left) is Lillian’s great-great grand child.    As you can well imagine lots of pictures were taken! We managed to get quite a few of the family onto Lilli Mae for a walk around and for them to see what all the Lilli Mae fuss was about!   Four of the six Linton siblings (Lillian’s Grandchildren) were able to make it; from left to right David, Michael, Yvonne and Howard. Yvonne’s husband Bob is with us in the right hand picture above (far right). It was great they could make it. We were a little sad that Madge and Eric could not be there. We organised a big Mo’Bay house with sea view for us all to stay for a couple of days after the yacht club BBQ. Very nice!    We have travelled to Mandeville where big sister Yvonne looked after us. After a really bumpy ride to and from Mandeville we arrived in Ocho Rios yesterday (11th March). We met more family members.  Our cousins Alicia (green shirt middle back) and Tanya (white shirt middle front) came to visit. Tanya and Alicia are May's great granddaughters. Tanya and Alicia happened to be in Kingston (from the US) and took time to come and visit with us in Ocho Rios with some friends. It was GREAT to meet them. Thanks for taking the time to come Tanya and Alicia! Lilli Mae has made it to her spiritual home and we (the crew aboard Lilli Mae) have been reunited with family. Telling the story of this journey was the purpose of our blog.  Lilli Mae and her crew have travelled over 4,500 nm to get to Mo’Bay since last August when we set off from Barcelona. If we add the distance travelled in the journey in 2019/2020 then it totals nearly 8,000 nm. We have a lot of people to thank for their help, support and encouragement. Even though this part of the journey is a "mission complete”, there is still lots of sailing to do. Actually we still have an engine to fix! Once that is done Lilli Mae will set sail again in April ‘23 heading to the US where the plan to do some maintenance work over the summer until the next Caribbean sailing season. In between now and setting sail in April we will be doing a lot of travelling around the Jamaica investigating our family history, filling gaps in our family tree and generally just “chillin’ out". Our email communication will slow down a little in this period and we will use this time to think about if we continue the wide circulation of our commentary on Lilli Mae’s travels and her crews onward adventures. It would be interesting to get you feedback. Thanks to you all for being part of our journey. Let me know if you want to remain part of ours and Lilli Mae’s adventures going forward. In the meantime take care wherever you are. All the best. From the family of Lilli Mae.  email: illi_mae {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com
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