Tragedy to Triumph - The Story of Darren Salmon
I was born June 9, 1991 in Kingston Jamaica to a dressmaker and an accountant. Both my parents were busy individuals who didn’t seem to have much time for each other. Whenever they were together, they usually argued.
My mother was the disciplinarian while my father was the fun and jovial parent. I got my basic education at the Meadowbrook Preparatory School and life was comfortable
In the year 2000 when I was 9 years old, my mother had a near fatal car accident that profoundly changed our lives forever. She was in a coma for a month. When she woke up her left leg was gone and her remaining leg very badly damaged.
My father and I would visit her in the hospital regularly for 10 months until it came time for her to go to the United States for further surgery and to begin rehabilitation.
Two months after my mother left Jamaica my father left me with his uncle to go be with her in the States. My grand uncle was a very strict man. I was only allowed to watch TV on weekends and for only 2 hours.
This rule forced me to preoccupy myself with reading. We had a study filled with encyclopedias and other books. I would spend many hours reading and taking note of all the scientific knowledge I gained. My cousins were all older females, who would exclude me from their conversations. I had no close friends at school so, this was a very lonely period in my life.
My mother returned to Jamaica, however, my father stayed. He believed he could make a better life for himself in the United States. My mother and I were primarily dependent on my father sending money for us to survive. I believe he did his best but his best was often not good enough. Eventually my mother had to sell all our furniture to help me finish prep school and keep our properties from being foreclosed on.
I was 12 when I started high school. My mother and I got baptized at a beach in December of that year. Near the end of my grade 7 school year Mum and I were evicted from the place we shared with her sister and brother in law. We moved in with her uncle. The properties my parents owned were rented and the rent was being used to pay the mortgage so we couldn’t afford to live in them.
Life was tough but never did a day go by without us having at least one meal to eat. With no brothers or sisters and my father no longer around, I knew my mother was depending on me to excel in school. She needed me to come out to be someone valuable.
So, I did my best, I stayed out of trouble and I grew in my relationship with God. I graduated high school as valedictorian of my class and went on to complete more advanced studies.
In the middle of the school year when I was in grade 12 my mother’s uncle died. Shortly after that we were evicted by his daughter who wanted to rent the house for more money. The Lord provided a way for my mother and I to move into a stranger’s house in Mona Heights.
It was now harder for me to get to and from school. But living in Mona became a huge blessing when I started university, because school was within walking distance.
In September of 2010 I started my degree program at the University of the West Indies on a full scholarship from the Jamaica Public Service. However, because I wasn’t able to keep my GPA high enough I lost the scholarship in my second year.
The rest of my education was funded by a mixture of God’s unmerited favor and student loans. While at UWI, I represented the school in table tennis. I was also heavily involved with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship. I attribute most of my spiritual growth to my involvement with UCCF. It was here I developed an appreciation for creative writing.
I wrote and performed spoken word poetry as my personal expression of worship unto God. The more I did it the better I became. I also had poetic friends who were very helpful along my journey. While poetry remains a passion of mine, lately most of my writing efforts have been going into article writing as I seek to share with people the many insights God has given me through his word, my life experiences and reflections.
I am now a Quality Assurance Technician by profession. I have managed to clear my student loan debts and the mortgage on my mother’s house. My mother is alive and well living off her internet work. My dad still lives in the states and is doing his best to survive there.
I got married on August 4, 2019 and have since become consumed with the principles of relationship management as you may have noticed from my articles. God has been faithful to me. He has taken me from almost homeless with little to eat to a place of stability and confidence and for this I will forever be indebted to Him.