Kay Howard
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Kay Howard, an American woman, struggles to fulfill the life-long dream of her husband, Claude, to live on a Caribbean Island. In her book she tells of their brush with death by starvation and exposure. She shares the joy of the discovery of their private waterfall, the nutmeg grove, and the cocoa trees. Kay shares their intimate moments as she names three babies, plays dominoes by candle light, attends three funerals and helps build their home on top of a mountain during gale force winds. She also reveals how they happen to have a spiral staircase covered with marijuana leaves, why her finger-nail was deliberately jerked out and why a dentist pulled eight teeth without her permission. She tells about being stung by killer bees, attacked by a vampire, arrested by communist soldiers, and dancing all night with the Prime Minister at the Evening Palace. Kay reveals the mental anguish her family suffered when their adopted daughter is burned alive. She tells of the humiliation that they endured when an official from the American Embassy tells them he was of the opinion that Grenada should go communist for the 'good of the people.'
These are just a few of the experiences depicted in this unusual story, told with humor, compassion, love and honesty.
Kay Howard was born in the mountains of West Virginia, received her elementary education from her mother in a one-room schoolhouse, graduated from Sharples High School in Clothier, West Virginia, then at the age of eighteen, moved to Florida with her parents. In Fort Myers she met and married Claude Howard. Together they raised four children -- Rosanna, Alice, Johnny and Rachel.
After graduating from the University of South Florida, Kay and Claude visited the Caribbean and fell in love with the island of Grenada. They decided that Grenada was where they wanted to spend their retirement years. Due to Claude's ill health, they retired early to raise nutmeg and bananas.
Four years later, Kay and her family successfully escaped the terrors of communism. They moved to Virginia where they now reside. Her hobbies are raising citrus and other tropical plants, gardening, and computers.
I reached to the back with my left hand and pushed Rachel's head down into the feed sack that lay on the floor. I pushed Daddy's head down with my right. The shooting men crouched in front and behind the Jeep. We were trapped in the middle as bullets ricocheted all around us and zinged past our heads.
'Stop it, Stop it!' I screamed.
I pushed Daddy's head farther down under the steering wheel. Rachel was lying flat on the floor, beside the goat feed. I had to sit upright or I couldn't reach them to hold them down. It was like the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral.
After a few minutes the three men behind the Jeep ran off into the jungle. The men from the car came to the Jeep with their guns pointed at me.
'Get out of the Jeep with your hands on your head!'
I saw it was the same man who had caused all the trouble over the gun when the mob stormed our house. I climbed out of the Jeep, crying.
'What have I done?' I sobbed.
He walked up to me and stuck the barrel of his revolver into my stomach. I could feel the cold steel against my bare skin, between my shorts and halter-top.
'You're under arrest! Go back to the police station and give yourself up, right now!'
