Ray Hassell

I was born on Saba. I left in 1954 when I was a young baby, three or four years old. I have little flashbacks, certain things from then. I went to Aruba. A lot of people left here because they found work on Curacao or Aruba with oil refineries. In former years, the only work that was to be had here was farming and fishing. That's how people provided for they families. So after these oil refinery jobs became available, a lot of men left their families behind and went to work in the refineries. And that's how I ended up where I ended up. It wasn't only me and my brothers at the time, but a lot of families here were split up. It was difficult times, very difficult times. And then when I graduated from college, I came back on vacation. It was one of the best vacations I ever had, and I decided right there and then, I'm coming home. And that's how I came back. The lifestyle was different. It was laid back and you knew a lot of people. It was a really well-knit community, you know? That's what made me come back home.

I got involved in government and was a civil servant for almost 35 years and a politician from '73 until 2010, when I left politics and government. I worked for the government until 1992, then I went into the private sector for a while. I did that for a year and a half when I got a phone call: “We need you back home to take over the political party.” And at that time, I was hired on as commissioner. I had been a council member for 12 years before that, and I only had three months to run an election. I lost by about 30 votes. But then I ran for senator and I won every election after that. My last 12 years I spent as a senator in the Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles. Being a senator for the island was a proud moment because we've only had two in the history of Saba, Mr. Will Johnson and myself. And it was really an honor and a privilege to be elected as a senator for the island. You were actually a senator for the Netherlands Antilles, but of course you put your island first, although we were outnumbered. The majority of members of parliament came from Curacao and formerly Aruba also, but they left in 1986. They took an autonomous position within the kingdom. And after that Curacao and Sint Maarten followed, and Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba became what is known as the BES islands. Those were proud moments. It became a little difficult sometimes, because you were home a week and then you had to leave for a week, so basically, it was living out of a suitcase. But it was interesting, got to meet a lot of great people. I gained a wealth of knowledge, being able to do that. I decided to quit after 10/10/10. That's when the Netherlands Antilles split up. I did a lot of traveling. I married. My wife was a schoolteacher here. She is retired now too.

A typical day for me now? I come to the coffee shop six days out of the week, probably. Spend an hour here, and then I go home and I work around the house, and if people need help, I help them. I'm retired, you know? I have to keep myself busy. When my dad retired, he came home and he did what he loved to do before he left. He farmed and he fished. But yeah, that was life on Saba, you know? I remember when I came home, we enjoyed calypso music, which is Caribbean, meringue, even country music, believe it or not — when you were walking in the little streets here, you heard a lot of country music. We try to maintain our structural heritage as far as buildings are concerned with red roofs, white sides, et cetera. Government has a policy: You build a house, you got to paint it our traditional colors, which gives it a nice look. It's nice to see all the red-roofed white cottages in the greenery, you know?

I've always had my people at heart. I love being humble and talking with people, and of course passing time at home with my little granddaughter and my wife. My first 20 years were spent abroad. But it's great to be back home. It's here until death do us part.