People

Blind farmer thankful for her experience

First, it was the headaches. Daphne Gayle says her headaches were frequent, as was the fatigue. Doctors thought it was her body’s way of reacting to the sadness she felt after her father’s death. But then they discovered she had a rare eye disease. Daphne lost her eyesight.

Extreme and abrupt weather changes in Canada, where she lived, didn’t help her condition. Doctors recommended she move closer to sea level, where weather changes are less frequent, and she could get some relief from the headaches and pressure.

“I couldn’t adjust to the changes,” Daphne says. “I could feel changes in weather days before the change came.”

Daphne took the doctor’s advice and returned home to Jamaica, where she had been born. She settled on a farm in Old Harbour, St. Catherine, and found things were about to change once again.

 “I felt I needed to get in touch with nature,” says Daphne of her decision to live on the farm. “I needed to go to a place where I could start and finish something. I needed to feel grounded. Being on the farm, I could plant something and see it grow.”

What started out as simply planting a few crops with tips from the farming community suddenly went full scale with 10 acres of peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, scotch bonnet peppers, cucumbers, citrus, bananas, and plantains. The one-time psychologist was now a full-time agribusiness entrepreneur, selling to supermarkets and agroprocessors around the St. Catherine area.

“When I started farming, a lot of people thought I was joking,” she says. “‘Why would this blind lady want to start farming?’ they wondered.”

But blindness hasn’t stopped her. She has had to overcome this and many other obstacles in her life so far—and she has faced each one head-on. Her farmland was ravaged by hurricanes Ivan, Wilma, and Dennis, but she has persevered, rebuilding the farm—often with her own two hands.

“In the time I take to plant one tree, (a full-time farm worker) can plant 15,” she jokes. “They’re used to me wanting to help out.”

But everyone needs help once in awhile. After the hurricanes hit, help came from several different organizations—even the government.

“The farming community came in and helped me so much,” she says. “We are recovering. Slowly.”

Daphne says her condition hasn’t stopped her from “seeing” her accomplishments. In fact, she fondly credits her blindness to the sudden change in her way of life.

“We don’t have any pride in accomplishment anymore,” she explains. “This blindness is a wonderful experience. I give God thanks every day for the experience. I now trust without knowing. I get passionate about what I do. I had to find myself.”

While Daphne is passionate about her farming, she is certainly passionate about many other things, as well.

At 5 am, she starts her day with a little exercise. She says it helps get her going. Most days she then heads to the family business—a sort of local store—to offer any help she can. After that, she finds time to volunteer with any of the various organizations she offers her time to, including the Kiwanis Club of Old Harbour, Jamaica, of which she is club president.

“Some days I distribute clothes and packages to needy families,” Daphne says. “I brought back basketball equipment from Canada for the kids. The families come to me when they need something. They know where I am.”

As if the family business, the farming, the Kiwanis club, and exercise and meditation weren’t enough to fill a day, Daphne also gives—free of charge—her time to anyone needing a little pick-me-up, or just a few tips on time management. She has a small office where she offers reflexology sessions, because “it’s a pleasure for me,” she says.

Working with the community has been such a huge part of the healing process for her. She says: “Being blind gives me an edge—people open up to me.”

In fact, her work with the community recently was noticed by the minister of agriculture. Daphne received a plaque for her “contributions to the farming community.”

For Daphne, in the end, it seems to all come back to that community which she loves so dearly. The community that has helped her grow not only her crops in the fields but to grow herself as a woman, a friend, a colleague, a mother, and a loving, spiritual being. For her, the journey may just be beginning. And, as she says, it’s a journey she’s willing to take with whomever wants to join her. Like so many people who have helped her along her way, she just wants to help others along theirs.

“I always tell people I am building bridges and breaking down barriers,” she says. “I will be the bridge to help you get where you are going.”