In this week’s “Above and Beyond”, I have opted to post a very personal event as something out of the ordinary that changed many people’s lives.

In 1957 my father, born and raised in Jamaica, West Indies decided that he wanted a better existence for his family. He ventured to the U.S.A. to find work and search for a place he could make home. Unfortunately or fortunately he decided that Florida was not the place for him and he returned home. The following year he voyaged to the U.K. and for some reason, believed that this was the place he could put down roots.

Several decades later four generations of “Burtons” now exist, living quite happily in England. My father had to endure many years of hard labor and weather he wasn’t used to, so that his descendants could have an upbringing and life he was not initially privy to. He is a very proud man and living in a society where he was a pioneer of sorts, could not have been easy to say the least.

Accomplishments come in all shapes and forms, big and small. In my mind, his achievement may not have contributed to the salvation of mankind but it is just as vital to society. It is these small and generally over-looked events in history that make our world better and create a stronger and more diverse community for us all to share in.