Remembering Michelle Evans, A Daughter of Spanish Town Years Later

 By Neil Armstrong

Photo of Michelle Evans contributed by Donald Radcliffe

 

In high school is where most of us developed friendships that we hoped would last for a lifetime. While we were in different classrooms from first to fifth forms, it was in sixth form that those of us who chose that path all came together in our final two years of school — Arts or Science. That’s how it was at St. Jago High School in Spanish Town, Jamaica, where I met Michelle. Her surname was Easy then, but she subsequently changed it to Evans here in the Greater Toronto Area where she lived for many years. 

 

Michelle Evans, born on January 12, 1969, passed away here in the Greater Toronto Area on October 17, 2014, after a period of illness. It was only a few days ago that many of us — her high school friends living here in Canada, and in Jamaica — found out that she died more than eight years ago. We are in shock. How could she have died and there was no word of her death through our network or grapevine?

 

Since hearing of her passing, I have contacted mutual high school friends, and even members of my family who met Michelle, to share the news with them. Thank you, Rodcliff Lewis, for listening to that inner voice that propelled you to visit her family home on Ellis Street in Spanish Town to ask about her. Thanks to Antoinette “Shaggy” Cole-McFarlane for being the conduit of Rodcliff’s updates regarding Michelle.

 

Michelle was outspoken and could argue eloquently with much laughter to share. That’s my memory of her in high school and even in our conversations here. In the lead up to exams, we — including Charmaine Simpson, now deceased; Opal Wright, and Carolyn DaCosta — would head to the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Library or the Institute of Jamaica to study. Michelle was the co-editor of Ravensworth Review, the 1985-1986 school yearbook from which I have pulled some of the photos to share in this reflection of/tribute to her. She helped me to organize a class party at my home when we were in lower sixth form. Michelle was a conscientious person. 

 

Although she migrated to Canada several years before I did, when we reconnected it was seamless — there were no gaps in our friendship. Michelle would often accompany me to weekend events when I worked at a radio station at York University. We would check out some cultural events, restaurants, and just chat. It was Michelle who informed me of the passing of fellow schoolmates Charmaine Simpson (July 5, 2000) and Albert Coombs (December 24, 2008). We — Michelle, Donald Radcliffe, and I — kept in touch but at some point our tight connection loosened. Life is like that; sometimes we are so focused on obligations, responsibilities, and priorities that we grow apart.

 

I hadn’t spoken to Michelle in years but I remember meeting her daughter, Avarie, and how much of a doting mother she was to her. Michelle had changed her job, moved to somewhere else in the city, and soon we lost our bond of friendship.

Pages of Ravensworth Review, St. Jago High School, 1985-1986, for which Michelle was the co-editor

 

Although it is more than eight years later, I would like to express my condolences to Avarie, Michelle’s mother, Edith, sisters Elleith and Valerie, and other family members. 

 

Michelle, a daughter of Ravensworth, Spanish Town, has left us but she will never be forgotten.

Hanging out with Michelle at an event in Toronto, Canada