Lisa Atwater has been through the medical and emotional wringer, having had two major surgeries in less than six months on her spine and brain. And although the discomfort and changes in her lifestyle remain unwelcome visitors, there is one constant on which she can always rely – the support of her community in Moruga.
“I don’t even go out on the back porch these days,” she told WE.
“But if it’s one thing when I’m telling my story, it must be the fact that I have had so many people always in my corner, rallying and supporting me. I am a child of the community, a child of the village. And that quality of support means everything.”
Last year, after experiencing pains in her right shoulder, which eventually made its way to the left, and several doctor visits and tests later, she found herself having to undergo Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion, a surgical procedure used to relieve pressure on spinal nerves in the neck, caused by a degenerative disc.
“That was done in September, and I was placed on sick leave and I started physiotherapy. That was a journey!”
She returned to work teaching History at the Moruga Secondary School in November, but started to feel “funny” by mid-December.
“I remember telling them at home, on Christmas morning, ‘I’m feeling strange.’”
She was eventually diagnosed with Chiari malformation, a structural defect that causes the lower brain to extend into the spinal canal.
“My cerebral fluid was not flowing the way it was supposed to, and I developed something called syringomyelia, which was causing the chronic pain in my shoulders…And in between the surgeries, I lost my youngest brother, who just died suddenly,” she choked up.
In retrospect, Atwater said she never realised how many things she had been involved in and how quickly she had to adapt to the changes.
“I look at myself now; I was a busybody, in everything, up and down the road, busy, busy. And now I’m just home.”
Atwater had been the People’s National Movement candidate for Moruga/Tableland in the 2025 General Elections. Not because politics was her calling, but because she believes in volunteerism, community, and giving children hope.
“I remember in 2020 doing an interview, sitting on my back porch, on being president of the San Fernando Lions Club, and just giving thoughts about my worldview. And the interviewer asked, ‘Will you consider politics?’ And I laughed and I said, ‘No, of course not.’ But here I was back in 25.”
Atwater said during that campaigning period, she paid a lot of attention to her “foot soldiers.”
“I had to walk. That was my responsibility. But the people who genuinely turned up to offer support because they believed in our cause? And at the end of the day, they are powerful ones. The electorate is important. It’s about serving them. Their circumstances may not be the best, but they turn up. And you must say thanks.”
She said she began to and continues to teach because she sees it as a chance for renewal. She entered Moruga Secondary as an OJT on May 24, 1994, and she never left.
“I like it there because I know all the children. And if I don’t call you by your name, I would call you by your grandmother’s name or your uncle’s name or your father’s name.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Atwater said, the community suffered, especially the children, because for some of them, the school feeding programme was a necessity.
“No school, no school feeding. That was the impetus for my reaching out and asking for help for the community. Then, when we talked about school online, we didn’t have the kind of facilities that other people had, because we’re rural. We didn’t have as much interconnectivity. My children certainly didn’t have devices, and I do not believe a phone is a device, especially if you’re doing technical drawing.”
An advocate for proactivity, Atwater said she admits there is always a lot to complain about. But even as people complain, they should look around and see what needs to be done.
“We can tell you everything that’s wrong, but when it comes to saying, ‘okay, now that we’ve established what is wrong, how are we going to fix it?’”
And just as she has been the recipient of the goodwill of the people of Moruga and environs, one of her aims is to spend time ensuring that the girls in the community get a complete education before they move on.
“Educating a woman is about educating a village and a generation. And when I say education, I don’t just mean academic, but skills training.”
For her, female empowerment is a way of life, and if she could have her way, every female in Moruga would be financially independent.
“Not that I’m discounting males, but they survive easier than our females.”
She identified the quote, “The greatest gift you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence,” by Dr Maria Montessori as one of her favourites.
“Because it goes back to being educated, and what better gift to give to a child?”
