By Alesia Edwards
Audrey Lecky’d life work is not just providing the daily bread for hundreds through her bakery in the centre of Port Maria, St Mary but it also involves helping people to become the best they can be.She has a very soft spot for people, and persons who know her well will tell of her passion and commitment to seeking ways to help people around her to enhance their lives.Her love for people, especially children cannot be questioned and it’s no wonder, that at this stage of her life, she is now a ‘mommy’ again, albeit, not biological or mothering the offspring of any of her three children.“I now have a little four year old, so I am still a mommy,” she explained. “I just stopped somewhere and somebody said you want a little boy and he ran up to the car and I just looked at him and said ‘come in the car’ and I took him home.” Mrs Lecky told the Times that her own children were not surprised by her instant decision. “I guess they know over the years that I am always helping to school children so it doesn’t matter to them,” added Mrs Lecky, who is also a Justice of the Peace and President of the Bakers’ Association of Jamaica. The little boy is one of several others that Mrs Lecky has taken under her ‘wings’ as she continues to fulfill a part of her God given mandate and strong Christian beliefs.
During an interview with the North Coast Times, she explained how she was able to mentor and nurture another youngster she met at her business place AML Bakery in Port Maria, several years ago. At that time, the youngster was about 13 years old, but had great difficulty reading and writing although he was placed in a high school.She explained that the child came looking for work because he was eager to attend school. She turned him away because he was too young to work. He returned sometime after with some ackee which she purchased from him after he assured her they were not stolen and soon after they developed a relationship. As a trained teacher, she soon realized that he could not read or write and she enrolled him in the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning, formerly JAMAL. Mrs. Lecky explained that the young lad would come by the bakery in the evenings after school and sit in her office and she would help him to form letters and read. After three years, she said he took himself to Brimmer Vale High and got enrolled in that institution.
“When I went to pick up his first report he came to me and said ‘Mrs. Lecky how much mi come?’ And I said to him ‘third’ and he said ‘That mean mi can come first then’ and the following term he was first. Coming from not being able to read and write.” She said from there he went to HEART and he is now a skilled baker. She has added too to the comfort of his home.
HELPING UP OTHERS
“There are many others who over the years I have schooled. That is one of the things I embraced more than anything else, education,” the former A-Level teacher of Economics, who left the classroom to operate her own business, told The Times. “The things that I do I don’t do out of a club, but on my own. Whatever way my heart moves me, that’s the direction in which I work.”She continued, “For me it’s all about making somebody else’s life better, there ain’t anybody who is supposed to be around me and leave and their lives not better. If it is my workers, they supposed to build up even a little house, there is no way that people can be around me and my first thing about them is not pushing them to another level. They must go as far as they can,” she stated.Mrs Lecky’s work across the parish has impacted many lives and it warms her heart when she sees people who she has mentored or encouraged to uplift their lives in whatever area they venture.“It just does something to my heart, I believe my favorite one who has now become my best friend is now working with an international organization. She said to me, ‘You are the one that has pushed me to reach this far, because my parents didn’t believe that I was bright or I could make it, but because of the effort, the energy and the interest that you show, I was so motivated and driven’,” Mrs. Lecky shared with The Times.
HELPING IN SCHOOL
She is convinced that every child can learn and has a purpose and this has forced her to go to high schools in the parish, on Tuesdays, and work with children some of whom have been written off by even their own learning institution.
“My feeling is this that if we don’t capture those people and somehow or the other nurture them and let them understand that somebody really cares, when I get old and they are the ones in charge, I am not sure what they are going to be doing with us if they don’t understands that somebody cares,” she stressed.
Her involvement in the community also comes through her church, Port Maria United Church where she serves as treasurer and board member and is to be commissioned as a pastor. She also serves as a member of the school board at Preston Hill Primary just outside Port Maria.Her contribution to different aspects of the parish cannot be quantified particularly as it relates to the thousands of people who have visited her bakery during its over 21 year existence, seeking all kinds of assistance.
BAKERY
AML Bakery is the only such business in the parish and employs 20 fulltime workers. She purchased the over 100-year-old bakery from its previous owners in 1991 and has transformed it from a little zinc and cardboard structure to what it is today, state-of-the-art-bakery.In a similar way to her nurturing of children and young adults, she has nurtured her bakery, despite some very challenging times, ensuring that it remains relevant to the needs of customers and she continues to search for innovative ways to enhance the wide variety of baked products that are already available.Through the bakery, she has also given back a lot to the parish and various organizations both in cash and kind.
She is also a farmer and has continued the Beef and Dairy Farm she operated with her late husband Dennis, who died shortly after she purchased the bakery. Although operations on the farm have scaled down somewhat, she still plants different crops and rears young calves and pigs.She loves gardening and the little time she gets off from her farm, church and the bakery, she spends nurturing her plants in her garden. She explained that in between all her different businesses which also included garment making, and the establishment of her clothing line, Ankenata, her first business after she quit teaching at Montego Bay High School for Girls, and later at St. Mary High. She also operated a gas station in Kingston and was able to read for her Masters in Clinical Counselling.Throughout her life, she has always been involved in reaching out to others and she explained to The Times that after her retirement she plans to lend a listening ear to people who really just want someone to listen to their situation and offer some advice.A native of neighouring Portland, she migrated to Montego Bay in St. James where she attended school but ended up in St. Mary after marrying her husband. Their union produced three children, two boys and a girl. Her eldest son is a chef in the US while the other works with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority. Her daughter is still in university.She has encountered many difficult periods throughout her life. The death of her husband was a major blow. The harsh economic situation which has crippled many businesses has had some impact on her business as well. Praedial thieves have also had their field day on her farm. Despite it all, Mrs. Lecky will tell you that there is “no rolling over and dying or succumbing to any pressure” for her.She is a very strong woman whose Christian faith and love for Christ has kept her and her family grounded.
