ST. MARTIN (September 16, 2002) — The island of Saba has a new title, My Life & Health Book by Elmira Naomi Sorton-Hodge. The 78-page autobiography follows Mrs. Sorton-Hodge’s life in words and pictures from listening to nansi stories in her native Anguilla, working as a waitress in St. Martin, and marrying Rupert Sorton in Saba, being the mother of 13 children—including members of government and business—and receiving a Dutch royal decoration.
My Life & Health Book has reached Saba just before Mrs. Sorton-Hodge’s 81st birthday on September 29, 1921. The book relates the author’s life of joy and achievement and her and her family’s challenges, some sad and some life threatening. “What this book also illustrates is the right of every individual to have the choice of publishing their life story; and it shows how often an individual story, however humble or grand is tied into the life and times of a society or nation, in this case Saba,” says Lasana M. Sekou of House of Nehesi Publishers. Though My Life & Health Book does not carry the House of Nehesi imprint, the St. Martin publisher’s Offshore Editing Services coordinated and completed the book’s publication between 1997 and 1999, in conjunction with the author and her daughter Sonia Richardson.
Mrs. Sorton-Hodge had received an OKSNA grant in the late 1990s to publish the book about her life and health. Midway into the project the final part of the OKSNA funding was not fulfilled, preventing the book from being released even though House of Nehesi had completed the project in time.
The long search for funding, led by daughter Sonia and at times advised by House of Nehesi, led to Prins Bernhard Fonds (Saba), which provided a grant in early September 2002, for the release of 300 copies of the 600 copies that were warehoused since 1999. The Tourist Office of Saba and WINAIR assisted with transporting the books to Saba.