REJECTION, disappointment and loss have all been part of Carol Reid-O’Connor’s journey, but, at 56 years old, she’s finally living her childhood dream of being a nurse.

Over the years, the former teen mother worked as a Jamaica Observer newspaper vendor, in a factory, in the hospitality industry, and as a hospital attendant, but despite the challenges she faced from a very young age growing up in the Boundbrook area of Janga Gully in Port Antonio, Portland, she persevered.

“We didn’t have much. Sometimes, going to [primary and high] school, we didn’t have lunch money…but my mother ensured that we went to school. She would say, ‘I don’t have any money today, you know,’ but we had to go to school,” Reid-O’Connor recalled in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

“From primary school, I always wanted to become a nurse, so I passed the Common Entrance Examination in 1982 and went to Titchfield High School,” she said.

However, she admitted that she was distracted during her high school years.

“Having come from a poor background…when it was time to do CXC [Caribbean Examinations Council secondary school leaving examinations] for the first time, I did not take it as my mother could not afford to pay for it,” Reid-O’Connor recounted. “I repeated fifth form, and during that time, when I was to take exams, I got pregnant with my first child.

“I did my exam in June and had my baby in July, and I did not pass any of the subjects,” said Reid-O’Connor.

However, she was determined to take care of her child.

“I started to work at a browning factory in Boundbrook, and because I wanted to become a nurse, I applied to the [Port Antonio] Hospital for a practical nursing job. I didn’t get it,” she said.

She was then told to complete a test to become an orderly.

“So I did the test in 1993 and passed, and they said I must come back for the interview. I did [the interview] and they said they would call me,” she said. “They didn’t call me.”

She told the Sunday Observer that she would repeatedly check with the hospital for updates but was told each time that they would call her.

“I kept applying, over and over,” said Reid-O’Connor.

At the time, her friend Marcia Reid, who was working with the Jamaica Observer, encouraged her to sell newspapers.

“So in 2005, I started selling the Observer. I did a housekeeping course at the College of Agriculture, Science, and Education while selling the paper in the mornings, then I would go to work as I got a housekeeping job at Frenchman’s Cove hotel.

“In 2008, I started selling Chat [a former Observer publication], and while selling, I still applied to the hospital as I wanted to work [there]. I went up there every day and asked [until] they eventually called me for an interview for a hospital attendant [position]. I got the break and started working as a hospital attendant in 2012, and then I stopped selling the Observer,” she said.

Reid-O’Connor used the opportunity to speak to the hospital’s matron about the qualifications needed to become a nurse and was told mathematics, English, a science subject, and any other two subjects.

She then turned to her first-born son Loren McFee and told him that when she left high school, she’d passed him as her subjects instead of her CXC exams.

“He said, ‘Okay mummy, I will pay for the five [Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC)] subjects for you.’ He paid for the five subjects. While working, I did double shifts sometimes, and I had a mandatory hospitality class at the same time, but I weathered the storm.

“I used to help my children with their schoolwork, so the studying was still in me. I got English with [a grade] 1; mathematics, [grade] 2; human and social biology, [grade] 1; social studies [grade] 2, and office administration, [grade] 2,” she explained, adding that she sat the examinations at the same time as her youngest son, who was attending Titchfield High School.

However, she had to sit out a year after finding out that office administration wasn’t accepted as a qualifying subject for the midwifery programme at Kingston School of Nursing, which is what she’d initially decided to study after acquiring the CSEC subjects. The programme was also full at the time.

“I had to wait another year, so I did chemistry and principles of business [at the CXC level]… I got them with grades two and one in 2018 and 2019, respectively,” Reid-O’Connor told the Sunday Observer.

Pointing out that the midwifery programme and that for registered nursing both required four years of study, she opted for the nursing programme at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica). She applied and was accepted, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit, crippling the face-to-face education structure.

“Not [being] used to computers and being thrust into online school was a struggle and very challenging, but I got help from my children,” the mother recalled. “My son bought me a laptop, and my three sons — ages 36, 28, and 23 — helped me to adjust.”

She also relocated to Kingston to be closer to UTech.

“I got a four-year study leave from the hospital, and I got a loan from the Students’ Loan [Bureau] to assist with my tuition,” she said, adding that there were now new problems.

“The Internet was challenging and came with a new experience; it was difficult logging on to the classes and I cried. It was so hard and at times it took me a while to log on and to complete projects… but I overcame,” she recalled. “I was the oldest one in the group, and a lot of them were like my children. They loved me, and I felt very proud to be with them, as I was like a mother figure to them. My quiet, reserved temperament helped and helped them at times, which [was] reciprocated and helped us to bond.”

She also lost her mother, who died at 89 years old, and her husband while studying to become a nurse.

“My mother’s hip was broken… I used to take care of her when I got home, as she was living with my niece who was close by. She relocated to Ocho Rios, and I used to go and look for her whenever I could; that was very challenging. She was suffering, going through much, and I think it was a relief when she passed.

“My husband, although not supportive, motivated me to be a nurse by his vocal expressions, as he used to call me ‘nurse’ and sometimes ‘matron’, which spurred me on to fulfil my childhood dream. I wanted to show him that I had the ability, although not the finances.

“He fell from a tree in 2023 and was hospitalised, and I had to ‘nurse him’. He was at the hospital where I did my practical, so I spent some time taking care of his needs for a month. He passed, and my lecturers and the students supported me again, for which I am grateful,” Reid-O’Connor told the Sunday Observer.

Despite everything, she completed the Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme and graduated from UTech in November 2024 with an upper second-class honours degree.

Interestingly, too, the same hospital at which she ensured there was a clean and safe environment for patients and staff through the infection control policy and procedures as an attendant — Port Antonio Hospital — is the same one at which she is now employed as a nurse.

“I feel very proud of myself and my classmates were very proud of my achievement. The staff at the hospital is also proud of me. I am loving it, although it is hectic as it is more than what I used to do, but I am loving it,” said Reid-O’Connor.

Carol Reid-O’Connor celebrates on her graduation day in November 2024.

REID-O’CONNOR…I feel very proud of myself

Registered Nurse Carol Reid-O’Connor is flanked by her sons Ivor O’Connor (left) and Loren McFee on her graduation day from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme at University of Technology, Jamaica.