The torrential rains pelting the packed morning ceremony for The University of the West Indies (UWI) presentation of graduates 2017 on Friday could well have been the proverbial showers of blessings for Floyd Emerson Morris, Jamaica’s first blind senator and former senate president.

The outright show of emotion and the spontaneous standing ovation that erupted as Morris stepped forward to receive his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree were the icing on the cake, but masked the journey of unimaginable courage of this extraordinary Jamaican.

Thirty-one years before becoming only the second blind Jamaican to receive his PhD, Morris left St Mary High School in the eastern parish without a single subject, mainly because his sight had deteriorated so badly that he was unable to complete his Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams.

“Without sight, I was already facing what could be a cruel, uncaring world. Now without any academic certification, my immediate future seemed entirely hopeless. As Jamaicans would say, ‘mi corner dark’, literally,” Morris recalled with characteristic humour in a Jamaica Observer interview.

Saying that it was his Seventh-day Adventist faith that took him through the struggles, Morris noted: “It is an understatement to merely say that I am thankful to God for His guiding hands in my life. His divine intervention at every defining moment of my life is a story all on its own.

“I have learnt to appreciate the immortal words of the song: ‘When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed; when you are discouraged thinking all is lost; count your many blessings name them one by one; and it will surprise you what the Lord has done’.”

Prior to the presentation, UWI Chancellor Robert Bermudez singled out Morris, noting that he was one of eight visually impaired indeviduals who earned their degrees in the 2017 graduation exercises. Morris received the PhD after defending his thesis titled, ‘Mediated Political Communication in Modern Jamaica: Cases of Michael Manley, Edward Seaga and P J Patterson’.

Those present to celebrate the moment with Senator Morris included Dr Portia Simpson Miller, the first woman prime minster of Jamaica; Dr Peter Phillips, president of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP); Morris’s wife Shelly-Ann; and Jemita Pryce, his mother who was wheelchair-bound; among other family members and supportive friends.

Fully blinded by glaucoma at age 20 on the brink of emerging manhood, Morris would have to overcome dreadful anger, depression, postponed ambitions, the ignorance of people who knew not how to deal with blindness, and the threat of yielding to the doubting voice that whispered incessantly: ‘It’s over for you, give up!’

“It was hard to take. In the weeks and months following, the glaucoma slowed me down considerably. I could no longer play cricket, football or the other games I loved. When I started to have sight problems, the teachers did not know how to deal with it. However, they put me to sit in the front of the class so that I could see the blackboard better.

“I suffered a great deal of derision from some of my classmates who mocked me when I bumped into things. My grades plummeted and I was failing my exams with uncomfortable regularity,” Morris recounted.

But once he had found the courage in his heart to go on, he blazed a trail that is one for the annals of Jamaican history and a legend in the community of disabled persons.

After being trained to cope with his disability at Salvation Army School for the Blind, he completed Mico Teacher’s College — now Mico University — and went on to the UWI to read for the first degree in mass communication, later becoming a student leader and lecturer there.

While at UWI, Morris grilled Prime Minister P J Patterson at a student meeting, not knowing that that fiery encounter would set him on a path to national leadership. In time, Patterson himself would name Morris as senator and junior minister for social security.

“My accomplishment is undeniable proof that no matter who you are and where you are from, you can achieve anything that you set your mind to, even if at the beginning the road ahead seemed dark and perilous…as the one I was born to travel,” said Morris.

“I am humbled but totally elated. I don’t believe that I am brighter than anyone else. But when you have a firm belief in God, confident in self, have a vision of life, and support from family and friends, the world is there for you to conquer,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The senator said he could not have done it without the help and support of many people, including his long-suffering mother; his devoted wife; Ralston McNish (brother); Henry Pryce (uncle); Enid Gaynor (aunt); Carol Biersay (cousin); Jacqueline Douce (church sister); Jesse Shirley (teacher); Professor Gordon Shirley; Ann Shirley; Horace Clarke (late MP for St Mary Central); and Kathryn Milton (wife of the former British high commissioner to Jamaica).

“As for the University of the West Indies, I will forever cherish that institution because it has allowed me to maximise my true potential as a person with a disability,” Senator Morris added.