Diana Catlyn, a native of the Caribbean country of Barbados, has lived in Brooklyn for many years now. Her sister always says that she likes to be on the streets. “I like giving to people in need,” she said.
Her mother and grandmother were the two greatest influences in her life. She credits them for teaching her to care for others.
Growing up in Barbados, at the age of 14, she helped her mother take care of another child whose mother could not afford to take care of them, for four months, with the help of God.
She has done several acts of kindness in her life, both in Barbados and here in the U.S.
“I used to go and help bring water to give a woman to wash her clothes before I go to school,” she added. She would hang them on the clothesline and after school, she picked them up for her. She would help many others, without letting anyone know what she was doing.
In addition, she would go to the Red Cross in Barbados and help take care of children in the hospital, doing things including feeding them and taking food to older people’s homes.
In Brooklyn, she regularly visits local food pantries, and drops off the food to her elderly neighbors and families with young children, at various churches in the neighborhood including her own church on Farragut Road.
“The response is very grateful. That is what makes me keep doing what I like, not for me but for them in the name of Jesus,” she continued.
Her hobbies in Barbados were collecting stamps and foreign exchange money, as well as writing. My favorite hobbies now are to help people, especially older people and children.
She likes to inspire the younger generation in the community. She encourages them to: “Go to school, learn, study hard, stay in school, get your education. Everyone may not go to college or get a degree, stay in school and get your certificate.”
“No one can take education from you. Stop impressing people that don’t care about you,” she reminds them.
She says her legacy in life is all about this statement: “What little you have, you can share it. We can not take anything with us.”
