“MS BIRDIE” (Ms Ienna Coleman Sealy)

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Ms Ienna, who has been known as “Ms Birdie” throughout the course of her life, is almost a celebrity in her own right.  You can stop a passer-by on any street in Belize City, and chances are that even if they don’t know Ms Birdie personally, they will know of her.  And once you get around her neighbourhood on Pelican Street, just about everybody can direct you to her house.  Not only that, for within the political sphere, everybody knows Ms Birdie as one of the few people who never misses a PUP meeting, nor a conference, nor a rally.  For over 50 years, Ms Birdie has made it her objective to not just observe politics, but to actively direct them.

Ms Birdie was born the eldest child of eight, and lived at the family home on the north-side of the City.  The absence of her father meant that financial constraints on the family were particularly hard on Ms Birdie as the eldest, and even after impressive academic achievements at Ebenezer Methodist Primary School, she was unable to further her education at high school.  Thus, at the tender age of 12½ years old, Ms Birdie joined the working world, helping her employer cater three meals a day to working men temporarily based in the City.  After three years of earning at the most $1.50 a week (not to mention giving the entirety of her wages directly to her mother to assist with the maintenance of her younger siblings), Ms Birdie sought improved employment opportunities as a washer-woman for a brotherhood of priests, where she earned a much improved $10 a week.

Throughout her teenage years, Ms Birdie worked in order to support her family at home, and when she met Mr Gilbert Sealy and later married him, she did not forget her obligations to her family.  Moving to a new premises on Pelican Street (where she remains today) would have proved a great advancement for the couple and their two children had her mother not tragically died just days after the move; instead of beginning to acquire her possessions and develop her home as planned, Ms Birdie unexpectedly became surrogate mother to all seven of her younger siblings, who all remained in her care until ‘fleeing the nest’ in adulthood.  Few people would have so selflessly sacrificed their personal progression for the sake of younger siblings; Ms Birdie believes that her inspiration was her mother, who had always raised the family to know that they were like a ‘chain’, thus not one link can be forgotten nor neglected.

With nine children under her roof, Ms Birdie and her husband were (not surprisingly) unable to maintain the family without finding new gainful employment opportunities.  And so Ms Birdie began cooking food wholesale to sell to passing trade.  Johnny cakes and Creole bread became daily staples sold by Ms Birdie outside her house, which not only generated a supplementary income for the family, but also provided the growing household with nutritional sustenance sufficient to promote their healthy development.  Her culinary prowess rapidly became well reputed about town, and so when she started selling plates of food at mid-day (such as rice and beans, seré, and stew beans and white rice), her name for good cooking preceded her, and she created a niche market for herself in the fledgling street food industry of Belize City.  Even today, she still cooks every quincena to sell her produce to a regular crowd outside Brodies on Regent Street.

Aside from her cooking and family duties, Ms Birdie still found the time and energy to partake actively in the political process, in which she first became involved in 1954 (even though, at the time, she still didn’t qualify to actually vote).  She assisted the fledgling PUP with their promotion of independence by accompanying representatives on their canvassing campaigns, and she voluntarily helped the party in whatever way she could because she knew that the PUP could lead Belize into a brighter future.

A great role model in Ms Birdie’s life was Ms Gwen Lizarraga for her selfless contribution to the Belize City community.  I think it is safe to say that Ms Birdie, in every way, mirrors the achievements made by Ms Lizarraga, and in some aspects even exceeds them: from providing a ‘home’ for her seven orphaned siblings, to caring for her extended family, to contributing to the food providers of Belize, to altruistically promoting the betterment and development of her country through the People’s United Party.  Since 1993, Ms Birdie has also been an active Justice of the Peace, and she is recognised by the Order of Distinguished Service.  And throughout it all, Ms Birdie has remained a faithful servant of God, dedicating her daily devotions to the country of Belize and its people.  There could, surely, be no greater Nation Builder than Ms Birdie.

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