Leadership and Resilience
Beginning with love and devoid of wealth, my mother stands as a paragon of leadership, resilience and strength that I’ve witnessed throughout the years. This week, I pay tribute to the “matriarch and queen” of the Wilson family as we commemorate International Women’s Day, Mother’s Day, and my mother’s birthday. On her 79th birthday, March 14th, 2021, I looked back on my mother’s journey with immense pride. Her life is a perfect illustration of the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle. Elvira Elizabeth Francis, a leader among leaders, married our entrepreneurial father, Harold Robert Wilson, at the age of eighteen. Elvira was the one who discovered the unique formula for Wilsons Peanuts/Wilson Foods. This enterprise was the cornerstone that provided education for their six children. Despite an incomplete high school education cut short by her mother’s passing, and living in a one-bedroom house without running water, they ensured we never felt disadvantaged.
PLAN – Leadership
Elvira and Harold’s leadership strategy surmounted economic and educational challenges, securing university-level education for their six children. My mother managed the home while my father worked outside. After completing our chores and returning from school, we were expected to do our homework and help with the business. Whenever we struggled with a homework assignment, her response was,
“The teachers would not give you work they did not teach”
This was an astute move by Ma, teaching us to take responsibility for outcomes through adherence to this defensive strategy. With Ma, there was no excuse for failure. This mindset has fostered an entrepreneur, physiotherapist, doctor, architect, administrator, and medical intern. Her commitment to lifelong learning was highlighted when she attained her nurse’s aide qualification in New York, following the education of all her children.
DO
In our family’s peanut business, we mastered discipline, marketing, and quality control, among other skills. Business, education, and sports run in the Wilson family’s blood. My mother innovated by creating by-products like sugar cakes from peanuts, which we sold to teachers for additional income. Together, we sold ice cream at the village’s Sunday cricket matches. On Fridays, it was peanuts at Petrotrin. Moreover, her exceptional gluten, mock fish, and, most notably, the Friday evening broth continue to influence my palate. Ma’s mantra was…
“You do good, you do good for yourself”
Elvira and Harold understood that education was a key pathway out of poverty for their children.
CHECK
As the eldest child, my mother always kept me in ‘check’—and that’s not a chess pun. My parents educated us on supply chain economics, sourcing peanuts from India via my father’s contacts in China. Initially, we roasted and cleaned the peanuts by hand, which later transitioned to a mechanized process. We were compensated for our work after discarding any defective peanuts. Thus, accountability, quality, and responsibility became ingrained in our mindset, just as Ma always emphasised.
“By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread”
They never harboured envy or engaged in competition, instead teaching us to work for our desires. Ma consistently cared for the less fortunate. Each Friday evening, I walked five miles to deliver bread to a widowed elder in our community. Her financial means were limited, but Ma’s generosity was boundless. The creative imagination of our parents is truly remarkable.
ACT
To this day, 62 years after the inception of Wilson’s Peanuts, which began with my mother’s craving for peanuts during my conception, I fondly recall the leadership, mentoring, and resilience our parents demonstrated throughout the upbringing of us six siblings.
- collecting Carib bottles after cricket matches
- washing the bottles
- filling and labelling the bottles,
- packing the boxes
- my parents doing the receipts
- delivering the products with my father
- scrubbing the kitchen floor
- maintaining the machines
- learning a trade for boys and sewing for girls
- accepting nothing short of excellence
- annual Caribbean summer holidays to our grandfather’s estate
- listening to test cricket in the wee hours of the morning on our little am radio
- being fed by the best cook in the universe
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I hold the utmost respect for my father, an eternal optimist, and for my mother’s disciplined faith, unwavering leadership, and resilience. We are thus grounded in the legacy of great ancestors, to whom we owe eternal gratitude. While one’s beginning is crucial, the manner in which one finishes is of even greater importance… The choice is ours… May ELVIE prosper for many generations, and heartfelt thanks for birthing and fostering the reality of HAROLDS OIKIA.
Faith is to believe what we do not see… and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe ~ St. AUGUSTINE