The Tribune

By FELICITY DARVILLE

ON this International Women’s Day, we highlight an unsung hero in the newspaper industry. A woman who has been on the ground, face-to-face with the Bahamian people every day, delivering them their daily digest of national news.

Her name is Enamae Brown – a newspaper vendor for more than 30 years.

She is well known and loved by her customers. When I visited her at her newspaper stand on Dolphin Drive, she was busy doing what she does best – putting a smile on the face of others. You can tell that it’s more than just a job for her.

“Miss Enamae!” could be heard over and over as each customer stopped for their daily newspaper. Often when she sees a vehicle pull up, she knows exactly what they want. In some cases, they are coming for papers from previous days. She has past ones in stock to meet her customers’ needs.

She has been at the Dolphin Drive location ever since the road was opened. Before then, she sold newspapers on Collins Avenue near Columbus Primary School.

But newspapers hasn’t been Enamae’s only career. She had an extensive career in telecommunications. Even then, Enamae found a resourceful way to still sell newspapers. She gained trusted clients, and she would deliver their newspapers directly to their homes. She also had offices and stores that purchased from her.

While working another job, Enamae somehow found time to get up just after 3am to go to The Tribune just as the printing press doors opened to the vendors. She would take to the streets and sell her newspapers. She would sell out early, then go home and get dressed for her main job, which required an eight-hour shift.

She did all of this to raise her daughter, who is now an adult.

Enamae was born in Nassau. Her family moved about for a while but her main stomping ground is Honeycomb Street and Thompson Lane, off East Street.

She was graduated from Government High School and went directly into the workforce.

It was 1985 when she started selling newspapers. She recalls a woman who was an amputee in a wheelchair and her husband, who were veteran newspaper sellers, encouraged her to give it a try.

Enamae was impressed that even with one leg, the woman was industrious and well loved by her clients. When she started selling newspapers herself, it was slow at first. Sales were not booming and if she was not tenacious, she could have given up.

But Enamae’s magnetic personality soon started drawing in customers. She was happy she stuck with it and today, she has customers who would even drive out of their way to buy their daily read from her.

Even in the midst of the pandemic, Enamae says she and her daughter still managed to make out well selling papers. As long as the newspapers were printing, they were delivering the news.

“The pandemic did not hit me as bad as it did others; thank God, we survived,” she said.

She added that she looks forward to an increase in paper sales as COVID-19 numbers seem to dwindle and people return to work and children to school.

“It is important to buy a newspaper to know what is going on in your country,” she told me.

“You need to be aware and get the right information,” she added.

WhatsApp and other social media platforms can be sources of information, but also misinformation, and she advised that reporters are doing their jobs to get the correct information to the public.

Enamae has learned that while the news will sell itself, a smile and being upbeat at the start of someone’s day makes all the difference. By being that bright smile and in some cases, the first customer service representative people see for the day, Enamae has come to value her work, proving that pride, dignity and self-respect must be applied in every profession.