BETTY SWEENEY December 1920 by her daughter DELSIERENE
SuAndi: Initially it wasn’t my intention to publish Delsierene’s interview as a conversation and I meant to keep to the format of a mother’s story, but even though our fathers come from different parts of the world, our lives have such similar experiences that it made sense. Tell me your full name? Delsierene Elizabeth Waul, maiden name Sweeney. I was born August 1955 in St. Mary’s on Whitworth Street, near Oxford Road train station. It’s now a Sainsburys supermarket. SuAndi: Same hospital as me. My Mam Elizabeth and my Dad Robert McKay Sweeney were known as Betty and Sweeney. They had been married for five years when they had me. I was their first and the only child they had together. At that time my parents were living in rooms at 131 Broadfield Road. Then they bought a house at 6, The Grove, Moss Side, just beside Whitworth Park and we rented out rooms to people. SuAndi: Where is your Dad from? Savanna-la-Mar1, Jamaica. He enlisted in the RAF and came to England in 1944. Dad came with two of his cousins, my uncles David and Wilfred. Sadly, Wilfred died of pneumonia after three weeks of being in this country. Uncle David lived next door at 8 The Grove, then he moved to Canada. They were my father’s only relatives 1
The chief town and capital of Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica.
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