Lady Bustamante…A Remarkable Individual Says PM Golding

Prime Minister, Hon. Bruce Golding, in his tribute to Lady Bustamante in Parliament earlier this week, described her as a woman of extraordinary quality and a remarkable individual.
“The Americans had their Eleanor Roosevelt, we are proud to have our Lady Bustamante,” remarked Mr. Golding, to which the Parliamentarians agreed.
“Her life story is the stuff of which novels are written and films are made, except that in her case it was no fairy tale. It’s a story of love, of loyalty, of devotion; it is a story of courage and sacrifice.of unswerving commitment to the cause of the poor and the dispossessed. Those who needed a voice, those who needed someone who cared and who could get others to care,” he added.
The Prime Minister stated that Lady Bustamante, who was born in Westmoreland, embarked on an act of faith when she enrolled in the Tutorial College in Kingston, a college that had a reputation for producing fine secretarial and administrative personnel. He noted that if she had been successful in enrolling in a teachers’ college and had become a teacher, her faith and the course of Jamaica’s history might have been completely different.
Mr. Golding told the House that the role that Lady Bustamante played in Sir Alexander Bustamante’s life was much more than a supporting role as she was fully engaged providing leadership to the workers’ movements.
The Prime Minister informed that in her later years, Lady Bustamante took on many causes, including the Bustamante Children’s’ Hospital, to which she was attached. He added that she associated herself with many initiatives that were for the liberation and advancement of women.
Mr. Golding remarked that the Jamaica Labour Party and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union regarded Lady B as their own, but realised that she not only belonged to them, but to the entire nation.