BELIZE INDEPENDENCE PICS 1981 with PRIME MINISTER GEORGE PRICE and MISS BELIZE QUEEN SHARON AUXILLOU

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in Belize for Independence Celebrations 1981

Mrs. Ilna Auxillou and  Rt. Hon. George Price (1st Prime Minister of Belize)

                                                  My mother's grandfather Luis Alamina Sr. arrived on Caye Caulker when it was first being settled by the amount of families you could count on one hand.

MISS BELIZE 1981
Sharon Auxillou with Prime Minister of Grenada Hon. Maurice Bishop

The year was approximately 1870 when the island was still mostly unspoiled bush and mangrove lined sandy beaches. My great grandfather Luis Alamina Sr. sired many children including my grandfather Valentin Alamina who also sired 9 children including my mother Ilna Alamina who then birthed 4 children, which includes me, who has also birthed a son Tyler, who is at the age where he can sire his own children now, which makes the Alamina clan going into 5th and 6th generations here spread across this tiny nation of Belize present day.

The Rt. Hon. George Price, the first Prime Minister of Belize since 1981 when he led us to Independence and the new nation  born called Belize, was 92 years old when he passed away early this morning. He had been hospitalized in the last few days and the nation had prayed for a speedy recovery to no avail.  He lived a long and interesting life and was very accessible during the years he was a politician and died 1.5 days short of the big 30th Anniversary Celebration of our Independence.

The current Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. Dean Barrow has declared Sept. 26th, the day of his State funeral, a National Holiday, adding to several other National Holidays celebrated in the month of September.

The former Prime Minister, as leader, would walk down the street without an entourage, dressed in his white wayabera shirt. He would shake hands along the way, calling many people by their first names. Most of the citizens of that era remember a personal experience with him.
 It was a smaller country then that it is today, which is still so tiny that it is still common to have a run in with our Prime Minister on the street

This got me thinking a little bit about the History of Belize and my experiences here in this country.  I recall being 13 years old and already in my second year of the all girls Catholic Nun run High School St. Catherines Academy in Belize City when I first saw in person the man who was to become Belize's first Leader...earning him the name "Father of Independence" or "Father of the Nation" as his political party refer to him.

It was there at school where I I first started to experience the euphora which lasted all of 1981, the year of our Independence.  From the first year of High School in 1980, the students were already preparing for a monumentous occassion, the birth of our new Nation to take place the following year.  All the teachers at school talked about it non-stop. We were rehearsing for the historcial occassion, parades, learning the words to the National Anthem etc. and the entire country, as I recall, was in a state of excited anticipation and preparation.

Sharon Auxillou Urscheler - 1st Queen of the Independent Nation of Belize 1981

When my eldest sister competed in the Miss Belize contest late in 1981 and won the crown to represent Belize at the Miss Universe Pageant in Peru the following year 1982, it only added fuel to the excitement our family was already experiencing this historical year.

I remember that night on Sept. 20th, 1981 by the old Courthouse near the mouth of the River by Swing bridge, there I stood in the back of the crowd of spectators behind the dignitaries along with my mother and other three teenage sisters.  My  sister Sharon was all sashed and gowned wearing a crown - Miss Belize,  in the line-up at the front along with the rest of assorted Royals and Prime Ministers from the neighboring countries and Caribbean who had made the journey to Belize to celebrate this historical day with us.  I remember watching my sister in awe as she stood in the front row next to Royalty, and thought how privileged it was that the Prime Minister of Jamaica or the Duke and Duchess of Kent were to meet her, my pride, the Queen of Belize. I certainly did not comprehend at that time, the true significance of the day.  The New Prime Minister was congratulated, everyone seemed elated - this one saluted that one, a bow here, a curtsey there...the kind of surreal scene that I may never witness again.
 I was there present when the flag was raised at midnight, and proudly sang all the words to the National Anthem which I had already rehearsed so many times in school.

MISS BELIZE 1981 SHARON AUXILLOU being crowned by outgoing MISS BELIZE YVETTE ZABANEH

I shared a historical moment with the first Prime Minister of Belize with Rt. Hon. George Cadle Price, and I thank him for that wonderful lifetime memory.
 R.I.P.