Looking back on her long career, Icilda is pleased to have played a part in the smooth running of the hospital: “I helped people in a way, that’s the way I look at it. I’ve made a difference, keeping the place clean and neat.”
She joined the hospital’s kidney unit in 1967, after hearing about the job through a friend. “I worked as a domestic, running errands, cooking and cleaning,” says Icilda. “It was a very friendly unit, and the patients all knew me by name.” She remembers cooking special meals for kidney patients who were using dialysis machines.
“When they came on to the machines, sometimes they didn’t want the meals that came from the kitchen, so I cooked loads of sausages and bacon, and they would eat and eat and eat.”
Nine to five
After three years, Icilda moved to the dental department, where she sterilised and packed dental instruments. She was offered a job in the sterilising department but didn’t want to move. “So I started to clean instead. I cleaned the sinks, emptied the rubbish, tidied up, and I’m still there today.”
She has arrived regularly for her 7.30am start (in the early days it was 8am), five days a week. Weekends were spent with her husband, who was a builder, and her son and daughter, now both in their 40s.
On her retirement, Icilda plans to return to the parish of Portland, Jamaica, where she was born. She feels lucky to have visited Jamaica a lot in recent years, and it feels closer than it did when she first left at 18.
Leaving home
“I was sent to England by my mother because she thought I would have a better life here,” says Icilda, whose guardian when she arrived was her stepfather’s niece. “Saying goodbye was awful, because I knew I would miss her very much, but I knew if I had a better chance in life I would be able to help her in whatever way I could.”
Icilda didn’t see her mum again for nine years, after she’d married and had her children. “I went back for a visit, and it was joy all over!”
Icilda’s first job was in a ceramics factory in Stoke-on-Trent, which she didn’t enjoy. “I started the second day I was in England, and within a week my hands were blistered from burns from the ovens,” she says. “The boss swore, he had no manners, and I wasn’t used to that.”
After three months, she moved with her guardian to Brixton, London, where she worked in a shirt factory, and soon married and started her family.
Six years after leaving Jamaica, Icilda started at Guy’s & St Thomas’. She remembers getting lost frequently when she first worked there. “I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was awful, it’s such a big hospital,” she says.
Friends, family and history
Icilda has made good friends from different countries during her years in the NHS. “Some of them have returned back home and I’ve been able to visit them. I’ve been to America, St Kitts and Antigua. I’ve also remained friends with people here, we go out for meals and so on.”
Icilda feels it’s important to celebrate black history month. “We’ve had 200 years of slavery, and the fact that slavery is abolished and we are now free – we should celebrate for that reason alone,” she says.
“I have come across racism, but it’s very hard to put your finger on it. Sometimes you know the way a person speaks to you, there’s a bit of racism there, but I ignore it. Working as a domestic, I think some people look down at you, and that hurts sometimes.”
Icilda plans to spend time in England with her children and grandchildren, but she is also looking forward to going back to Jamaica. “I’ve still got family there, two brothers and a sister, nieces and nephews, uncles and aunties,” she says.
“The plan was to move back with my husband, but unfortunately he died five years ago, but the dream is still there so I'll do it by myself."
