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I have 14 children, not 50 or 60, says Gillete
Begs children of his unwed unions to forgive him
HG HELPS
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Friends and enemies alike describe him as a jolly, even happy-go-lucky politician who has played a significant role in increasing the size of the Jamaican population.
In local St Mary folklore, Terrence "Terry" Gillette, the former People's National Party (PNP) parish councillor, Member of Parliament for East Central and Western St Mary who served as minister of state for construction (works) and agriculture, is the storied father of up to 60 children, depending on who is spinning the story.
But Gillette, <span style="font-weight: bold">now a Roman Catholic deacon,</span> dismisses those assertions as people distorting the facts and throwing unnecessary spotlight on him as a virile reproducer.
"People try to credit me for more than I <span style="font-weight: bold">am able to take credit for. </span>Up to now I only know of getting 14 children, of which one has died," Gillette tells the Sunday Observer in an interview at his Woodside, Central St Mary home late last week.
But even so, he regrets aspects of his previous life and is now on a mission to set things straight.
"Some people like to pretty it up by saying I sew wild oats, but there is nothing pretty about having children without being married to their mother, confesses Gillette, a<span style="font-weight: bold"> handsome and charming brown man</span> whom the women found hard to resist.
"I beg God to forgive me for having treated the gift that he has given me in such a sinful way. I will spend the rest of my life continuing to beg for forgiveness, and I beg some of the children too, who did not grow up with me in a matrimonial home, to forgive me, because a father who gets children and the children don't get the decency of having a father to turn to at all times is cruel.
"I did not pay attention to the cruelty that I was doing to these children and I try my best to make it up to them. Funny enough, they all show me love and thank me for doing all that I have done for them, because I made sure that each one of them that could take it got proper education and proper housing. Most of them are reasonably successful and at least they can turn themselves over to God," Gillette says.
Some of the children are now resident overseas.
"One of them is the mainstay of the church in Montego Bay. Another is serving the US Army in Iraq, having given service before in Afghanistan, one is serving as a teacher and although not a (practising) Catholic, she is serving in the Christian faith and has a close relationship with God.
"Another lives in Germany where she, among other things, teaches English to German people and her husband teaches German to English people.
"Fourteen children is plenty, but I don't have as many as 60 as some people are saying. All of my children are very prolific, so I have a number of grand children and a large number of great-grand children," he said with obvious pride.
Although a significant personality in the political hierarchy of the ruling PNP administration of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Gillette said that he found time for his children, gave them general support, but did not believe in using his position as a parliamentarian to provide jobs for them through the public service.
On one occasion, his daughter was hired by a government agency, but was dismissed after a dispute arose with a superior official, following his intervention.
"I was able to find a job in agriculture for one who had just left school. The chairman of the board that she was working with could not get along with her. The minister called and asked my opinion about it and I told him that I had never seen a tail wag a dog, so if she is in the organisation and if she can prove that the head of the organisation is not worth being there, then it's not worth her being there also.
"So the next thing they did was fire her. That was the bottom line," Gillette said
Begs children of his unwed unions to forgive him
HG HELPS
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Friends and enemies alike describe him as a jolly, even happy-go-lucky politician who has played a significant role in increasing the size of the Jamaican population.
In local St Mary folklore, Terrence "Terry" Gillette, the former People's National Party (PNP) parish councillor, Member of Parliament for East Central and Western St Mary who served as minister of state for construction (works) and agriculture, is the storied father of up to 60 children, depending on who is spinning the story.
But Gillette, <span style="font-weight: bold">now a Roman Catholic deacon,</span> dismisses those assertions as people distorting the facts and throwing unnecessary spotlight on him as a virile reproducer.
"People try to credit me for more than I <span style="font-weight: bold">am able to take credit for. </span>Up to now I only know of getting 14 children, of which one has died," Gillette tells the Sunday Observer in an interview at his Woodside, Central St Mary home late last week.
But even so, he regrets aspects of his previous life and is now on a mission to set things straight.
"Some people like to pretty it up by saying I sew wild oats, but there is nothing pretty about having children without being married to their mother, confesses Gillette, a<span style="font-weight: bold"> handsome and charming brown man</span> whom the women found hard to resist.
"I beg God to forgive me for having treated the gift that he has given me in such a sinful way. I will spend the rest of my life continuing to beg for forgiveness, and I beg some of the children too, who did not grow up with me in a matrimonial home, to forgive me, because a father who gets children and the children don't get the decency of having a father to turn to at all times is cruel.
"I did not pay attention to the cruelty that I was doing to these children and I try my best to make it up to them. Funny enough, they all show me love and thank me for doing all that I have done for them, because I made sure that each one of them that could take it got proper education and proper housing. Most of them are reasonably successful and at least they can turn themselves over to God," Gillette says.
Some of the children are now resident overseas.
"One of them is the mainstay of the church in Montego Bay. Another is serving the US Army in Iraq, having given service before in Afghanistan, one is serving as a teacher and although not a (practising) Catholic, she is serving in the Christian faith and has a close relationship with God.
"Another lives in Germany where she, among other things, teaches English to German people and her husband teaches German to English people.
"Fourteen children is plenty, but I don't have as many as 60 as some people are saying. All of my children are very prolific, so I have a number of grand children and a large number of great-grand children," he said with obvious pride.
Although a significant personality in the political hierarchy of the ruling PNP administration of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Gillette said that he found time for his children, gave them general support, but did not believe in using his position as a parliamentarian to provide jobs for them through the public service.
On one occasion, his daughter was hired by a government agency, but was dismissed after a dispute arose with a superior official, following his intervention.
"I was able to find a job in agriculture for one who had just left school. The chairman of the board that she was working with could not get along with her. The minister called and asked my opinion about it and I told him that I had never seen a tail wag a dog, so if she is in the organisation and if she can prove that the head of the organisation is not worth being there, then it's not worth her being there also.
"So the next thing they did was fire her. That was the bottom line," Gillette said
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