I first met Tryphena on a project that a group from the African - Caribbean community participated in based at Nottingham Castle called From the sunshine to the snow.
Our friendship developed as we worked together on the project. We discussed our journeys emigrating from the Caribbean to England. Tryphena told me she emigrated to England in 1952 age 19 years of age, whilst I was aged 16 when I emigrated in 1957. The group discussed how we felt leaving our families behind, our first experiences of the British winter, and the smoky chimneys from the endless sea of factories.
I was born in East Portland, Jamaica in village called Scotts Runn, whilst Tryphena was born in the village of Old Works. The style of dress in England was so different from our sunny homeland where we wore bright coloured fashionable clothing, compared to the dark and heavy clothing such as tweed skirts paired with loads of cardigans and jumpers to cope with the colder climate.
Our friendship grew from that project, and many other community projects we became involved in that challenged, highlighted or portrayed black history. We became involved with many Clubs and Associations that discussed social awareness, education and most importantly for two nurses, health.
Tryphena trained as a nurse gaining registration as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RMN) State Registered Nurse (SRN) and working on the District as a qualified Midwife and she was also the first black Health Visitor to be trained and work in Nottingham. Tryphena also ran a nursing home for a number of years before retiring. Like wise I also trained as a nurse gaining registration as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RMN) and State Registered Nurse (SRN), and worked as a nurse in the National Health Service for more than 40 years.
It makes me laugh to recall a story that Tryphena told me about her experiences of being the first black midwife to work in Devon. The Devon doctors worried that the mothers would not take to a black midwife, to which she replied “when a women is giving birth she doesn’t care about the skin colour of the midwife, she just wants to get the baby delivered” and that was that.
Like Tryphena, with our love for people, and wanting always to be active and involved helped our friendship grow stronger. We involved ourselves in a variety of health and social care voluntary organisations sharing our skills and life experiences.
The Legacy Makers project and Sisters Against Cancer were two projects she devoted much of her time and energy to, and similarly with the Standing In This Place project. My friend Tryphena was just a lovely human being, so knowledgeable and caring. We had so many wonderful conversations, I will miss our friendship, our love for one another and our laughter.
Mrs Tryphena Anderson (front row right seated) with Mrs Louise Garvey (standing far right) at the Mapping Memories project.
Thanks to Ethel Anderson (seated front left) for providing the image.