Denise Patricia Allen is as prepared for the job as First Lady of Jamaica as her husband, Dr Patrick Allen is to become governor-general, head of state and representative of The Queen.

She looks the part… classy, chic, well-groomed, a picture of elegance and every bit the professional, 21st century woman. But there is much more than looks to the woman who is soon to grace the halls of King’s House.

First of all she is very bright. Even a chance meeting reveals deeper, more lasting qualities – vibrance, sincerity a strong sense of purpose and lots of humility. Afterall, she has spent most of her adult life as a pastor’s wife. And as Shepherdess Co-ordinator of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Allen has nurtured many a pastor’s wife through the dark days that are inevitably part of every woman’s journey, especially the wife of a holy man who is called to a life of virtual chastity and example.

At home in Mandeville, the Manchester capital which hosts the headquarters of Jamaica’s largest denomination, the trademark smile puts the reporter at ease. We now understand why, in one of his interviews some years ago, her husband described her as “the most beautiful thing I had ever seen” when he first laid eyes on her in September 1971.

Winning her love was never going to be easy because other men had seen her and had similarly desired her, he admitted. But mustering all the charm he could, and utilising means “fair and foul”, driven by desperate love, Dr Allen finally won the heart of the woman he adored and married her four years later. That beautiful smile had comforted many a student, patient, employee, and colleague, whose lives she had touched over the years, during a professional journey that transcended three careers, service to her church and to her community.

Daughter of St Mary

Patricia Allen had typically humble beginnings in the tiny district of Roadside in Islington, St Mary. Her father was a farmer and her mother a housewife who stayed at home to rear her eight children, in what Allen says was a close-knit household. She was the seventh child and the second-to-last girl, and even now she remains very close to her little sister, Juanita Swaby, a teacher in the Portmore community.

Allen describes her family home as a very loving one, and recalls with joy the bond shared between herself and her siblings. “It was a very full childhood,,” she tells the Sunday Observer. “It was also a very disciplined one. In those days, the village reared the child. You couldn’t get away with anything. You’d get a spanking if you got out of line. People were neighbourly, they cared for each other.”

It seemed that from the very beginning, Patricia was being trained for service. She recalls how her mother, a great cook, would dutifully prepare meals for the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church which was right next door to the house.

“We would take his meals to him, and we would clean the cottage that he stayed in when he came to visit the community.” It was from those early days that her love for service and her respect for the church began to be nurtured.

But while she was born into humble circumstances, and vividly recalls her very early years at home with her family, a new chapter opened in her life when she was eight years old. Her school principal, Justine Ansine of the Hillside All-Age School, and his wife Ethline, no doubt seeing in her qualities that she herself never saw, took her under their wings and invited her to live in their home.

Though at first her father rebelled, fearing he would lose his daughter to the well-to-do pair, he finally relented and allowed her to leave home to live with this couple, who would also have a profound effect on her life.

But never one to forget where she came from, Patricia stayed close to her family and attended the same school as all her siblings. “We saw each other every day and we played, so we remained close,” she recalls.

The social exposure she received during life with the Ansines, and the intellectual vigour imparted to her, while living with a teacher, no doubt influenced her desire to enter the classroom. So, while still in her late teens, she headed off to the Caenwood Junior Teacher’s College in Kingston, as she was too young to go directly into Moneague Teacher’s College, which is where she had set her sights. After a short period at Caenwood, she was called to teach at Bermaddy Primary School, just outside of Linstead in St Catherine. She left not long after for Moneague Teacher’s College.

Patrick, the ringleader

Two significant events there would change the course of her young life. She met the young Patrick Allen and also found her Christian faith.

Her face lights up as she recalls the circumstances surrounding their meeting. Patrick, she remembers, was a senior at the time, and “cheeky young man” that he was, turned out to be a ringleader in the fun-filled ‘ragging’ of freshmen which took place on the campus. She quickly points out that in those days, ‘ragging’ was merely designed to poke fun at ‘Freshmen’, not the often cruel thing that it frequently becomes these days.

“I remember one time, we had a concert and they (seniors) made us wear one foot of high heeled shoes with socks and a foot of sneaker, with stockings. It bonded us together as freshmen, as we learned to rely on each other,” she laughs. “They had a party for us at the end of the week, and at that concert, Patrick started talking to me. I remember my batch mates saying, don’t talk to him, he was a ringleader. But my roommate at the time, who was married, though she was very young, said to me, ‘Don’t follow the rest of them, I’ve been around longer than you, and I’ve seen him, and I think he’s a fine young man.’ So I followed her advice.We got married on July 20, 1975.”

In addition to finding her future husband, young Patricia also found her faith. Though she had met Seventh-day Adventists during her short stint at Caenwood Junior Teacher’s College, it was at Moneague that she began to sit up and take notice of this denomination. Having always attended the Methodist or Baptist churches, Patricia was no stranger to the Christian faith. However, she had never made a full commitment.

“There was a very vibrant young people’s movement at Moneague, and they used to have services,” she says. “I used to visit these services. Eventually, a crusade was held close by, and because the evangelist and the principal were friends, we were allowed to visit the crusade. I accepted the Sabbath and I was baptised on June 16, 1971 by Pastor Newton Hoilette who conducted the Evangelistic Series.”

She went on to complete Moneague Teacher’s College, and spent 18 years in the classroom, teaching at the primary and secondary levels. She has taught at Bermaddy Primary, Willowdene High School in St Catherine, Robins Bay All-Age, Hillside All-Age, Water Valley All-Age and Port Maria High School, all in St Mary; and later lectured in the Nursing Department at Northern Caribbean University (NCU), where she also served as dean of women.

In the classroom, Allen found her true self. She could not deny the adrenaline rush as she imparted life’s lessons to young, eager, impressionable minds. Though she had specialised in home economics in college, she decided to also study remedial reading “because I realised that a lot of the children were having trouble reading”. She recalls how students in those days were determined to make much out of little.

“I remember following my children to their exams in Carron Hall because we had no exam centre,” she tells the Sunday Observer. “My husband would pack us up in his car and drive us there, and we would take the bus back. There were children who did not have the money, and as teachers we came together and helped.”

She refers to her years in the classroom as some of the best of her life. “As I age, these are the years that come back to me,” she says.

Allen believes modern-day teachers should be lauded for the work they continue to do under increasingly trying circumstances. However, she also believes that the profession requires teachers who will give of self completely. “Government doesn’t have the resources, students’ attitudes have changed and teachers have their own challenges,” she argues. “You have to believe in what you do. It will take of your time, and of your means. Teachers must be willing to give of themselves.”

Nursing, her first love

Patricia Allen is philosophical about her Christian beliefs. “What the Lord called you for five years ago, may not be what He is calling you for now,” she says. That view steered her to new paths away from the classroom. While she had ventured into teaching at an early age, nursing had always been her first love. She recalls loving the idea of nurturing persons in need of care, “and I was always very fascinated with the nurses uniform”. But a lack of clear knowledge about what nursing really meant deterred her from pursuing this course earlier.

She began her training at NCU’s Nursing Department, but later went on to complete her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing and her Master’s degree in Adult Nursing at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan in the United States.

Just as it had in the classroom, her love for service and her willingness to sacrifice quickly came to the fore. Less than a year after completing her BSc at Andrews, she was called to be manager of the Dialysis Unit and soon after, manager at St Joseph’s Institute in Michigan. Allen says her tenure at both institutions was marked by “leadership by example”.

“You can’t lead from behind,” she says. “If a light was on in a room, I’d go in and turn it off. As manager, you can’t be telling the workers to turn it off, yet you are walking pass it. I remember a time when I noticed a patient’s light was on. She needed help to go on the bed pan. When I walked into the room, she said, ‘Boss lady, this is not your job, call one of the others to do it’. I said to her, ‘I’m a nurse, this is my job’ and I helped her onto the bed pan. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the boss or not, you must lead by example.”

Allen returned to Jamaica in 2002 and headed straight for NCU, where she served as lecturer in the Nursing Department. Soon after, she was called to share her skills in another area, this time as director of the university’s Human Resource Department, another job which called heavily on her ability to share and interact with people from all walks of life.

“Sometimes people would come to the office with problems and they would just want to talk,” she explains. “Sometimes, after giving me some information, I’d say to them, what do you want me to do with this information. They said, ‘nothing, I just wanted someone to listen’. My time as HR manager was very rewarding. I really enjoyed looking out for the staff.”

Living in a fish bowl

Allen left NCU two years ago to take up the assignment as co-ordinator of the Shepherdess programme in the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Here, she co-ordinates counselling and support programmes for pastors’ wives across several countries – Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Cayman Islands. As a pastor’s wife herself, she sees this ministry as a most important area of service.

“As pastors’ wives, we live in a fish bowl,” she reasons. “We’re constantly being seen and constantly being criticised. Not all criticisms are bad, but one has to learn how to handle that and not change who you are. Some people have fixed notions about what the pastor’s wife should do. For example, she should play the piano, she should be able to sing and preach. I try to let them know they must be comfortable with themselves and with what they choose to do. We have seminars and workshops which support them and offer counseling about family life, how to juggle children and careers.”

After decades of service to the people of Jamaica as teacher, nurse, human resource director, shepherdess, and as an active member of her church and community, Patricia Allen has been called to higher service – this time to stamp her mark on the nation’s highest office – as companion to the governor-general of Jamaica.

She recalls the day her husband came home with the news. “This was the biggest surprise to me,” she reveals. “I thought it was a big joke. I thought it was a trick, someone trying to see my reaction, because I’d told my friends that I’d be retiring in 2010. I told them all, 2010 was my year. I wanted to go and do all the things I’ve always wanted to do, plant flowers, do all my charitable work in terms of community service.”

Though she strongly believes that her years of service to different professions have helped to prepare her for this high office, she understands that there will be numerous challenges.

“Even with a college degree, one is never fully prepared for anything,” she says. “Training helps, but I’m a firm believer in God and I believe that through Him I can do all things, so I’m depending on Him to guide me and to lead me into doing whatever is expected of me to the best of my ability. I’m not at all daunted or afraid. Jamaicans are a loving people, and they understand that no one individual knows everything in the beginning, you learn as you go along, and I’m prepared to learn. Service to Jamaica, that is what it’s all about, giving service where it’s most needed.”

Though she admits to having a special place in her heart for children and the elderly, she is waiting to hold talks with Lady Hall, the current First Lady, before making any decision about what projects she will undertake as First Lady.

My husband will be G-G for all

As for widespread concerns about her husband’s appointment and how him being a devout Seventh-day Adventist may affect his work as governor-general, Allen testifies from her unique vantage point: “His religious convictions are what make him who he is,” she says. “He is who he is because of who he serves. And because of who he is, Jamaicans will get one of the best servants, because he’s going to serve as Christ served, with humility, without reservation, to all. I’m sure he’s going to be governor-general for all the people.”

She believes the discussion sparked across the local airwaves is very healthy. “People are sceptical and rightly so,” she says. “This has never happened before. All I can say is, give him a chance, let us see. If there is a disaster on Sabbath, I’m sure he’ll be the first person on the scene, Christ taught us that.”

Allen says she and her husband had thoroughly discussed how the appointment would affect him, and his present role. “It took us several weeks of praying, we couldn’t talk to anyone else about it. So it was really talking to the Lord about it.”

While the rest of the country ponders the changing of the guard at King’s House and waits with much expectation to see what the new head of state and his wife will bring to the table, the couple and their adult children – Kurt, Candice and David – are praying harder and preparing for her date with destiny.

Her four living siblings – Lorenzo, Hazel, Juanita and Leute – are no doubt elated that one of their own has been called to such high service.

A lover of exotic antique, rich wooden floors and Victorian styled décor, the soon-to-be First Lady believes she will be right at home at King’s House. And if the elegantly tailored, rose pink skirt suit she wore on our visit was anything to go by, she should have no difficulty gracing the local fashion pages. Though she is the first to admit to not liking the limelight, she has no doubt that she will have an exciting and rewarding tenure as Her Excellency Patricia Allen.

As she has stood with her husband through 34 years of marriage and nearly as many years of pastoral ministry, so she will stand by his side as the nation’s First Lady, when he takes his oath of office on February 26, 2009, as the sixth governor-general of independent Jamaica.