Feb. 8, 2009 — When asked what she calls herself, Veronica Gordon says the "Bush Lady." She is a seventh-generation, native traditional bush doctor, or herbalist.
Her life revolves around the bush. She is a conservationist, artist, tour guide, horticulturist and environmentalist. She incorporates her knowledge of the bush in her life.
Gordon teaches people how to maintain a healthy life with natural herbs. She walks and talks with people on her tours, encouraging them to smell, taste and touch plants. Gordon's aim is to teach each participant everything about the plant so they can even return to the right spot to pick the herb.
She began an interview by offering breath-freshening nibbles on bay rum leaves.
"I emphasize medicinal and healing properties of certain plants," Gordon says. " If one is serious about taking control of their health and stays committed — consistency is the cure. I believe we can all live to 100."
She's off to a good start: At 61 Gordon show no visible signs of aging. Her face is wrinkle-free even though she has spent a lot of time in the sun. She moves as if she is in her 20s, perching agilely on a white plastic bucket as she tells her life story.
She was born in Frederiksted in 1948 to Patrick N. Gordon and Albertha A. Lawrence, one of 14 children. She sprinkles the conversation with quirky things she remembers about her father and mentor, and a big toothy smile takes over. Gordon speaks of being down on the ground, head to head with her father, him telling her exactly where to find calabash.
She speaks of personal trials, such as her bout with polio. She remembers waking up blind and crippled at age 4, followed by a race to the health clinic in Frederiksted, her dad throwing her over his shoulder with her bouncing along as he ran to Strand Street. She left the hospital after six months and came home with medication that her father immediately threw away.
"Dad took me to the beach and dunked me three times and made me drink sea water," she says. "I had to gulp egg white and aloe. He picked bunches of bush and boiled it, and when it cooled I sat in the tub and he sopped me with it."
Gordon recovered and was able to start kindergarten right on time at St. Patrick's School.
"I could run and climb trees and challenge all the little boys," she says.
Gordon's father learned bush knowledge from his mother. The information continues to pass down through the generations: Gordon taught her 23-year-old son, Vincent Gordon, all she knows, but it is up to him when he will use his knowledge. She is keeping what she knows in a book she is writing for him.
"I picked up my tribal robes at 30," Gordon says. "And I started to use my knowledge."
After living in New York for 17 years, she returned to St. Croix with a dental mechanics diploma. When she came back to St. Croix she worked as a ground hostess for Bohlke Airways.
She spent her days off handcrafting calabash items, which is a cultural tradition.
"People have always made bowls ands cups from dried calabash," Gordon says. "Little did I know I was supposed to do this — it's my culture."
She is writing a book called 101 Uses for Calabash. She has come up with 86 so far, from the usual bowls and cups to instruments, jewelery, bird houses, toys, purses and salt and pepper shakers.
Gordon sells her wares at Mango Melee and Christmas Spoken Here at St. George Village Botanical Garden, the Agricultural Fair and the Bordeaux Fair on St. Thomas. She would like to expand to the British Virgin Islands. She has also been selling during the return of the cruise ships at Ann E. Abramson Pier. People from the ships are buying but not spending a lot.
"People like talking person to person with the one who made the item," she says. "And then they appreciate my work."
Her tours include the Big Trees Tour of the west end, going to places such as Estate Grove to check out a big old baobab tree or Mahogany Road kapok trees. She offers a leisurely tour through St. Georges Botanical Garden, pointing out native and imported flora and medicinal plants. Gordon is a service provider for Cultural Heritage and Nature Tourism (CHANT).
She works for the Urban and Community Forestry service in a nursery at the Agricultural Fairgrounds, propagating trees that are endangered and native. She has started row upon row of young mammee apple, maubi and coco plums. People clearing the land of vegetation has caused some of these plants to become scarce, Gordon says.
"After some plants are cut three times, they may never come back," she says."We are losing a lot of habitat, so I let my yard get bushier."
On top of everything she does in and with the bush, she is an African drummer in the six-member women's drumming ensemble Asche Akoma, which means "the power to create African love."
"I like to make everything I do fun," Gordon says.
To schedule a tour with Gordon, call 340-692-0863.
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