March 21, 2011Dear Sir,The name Dr Barbara Ball is a name that became very popular over the years. I remember her on a number of occasions. When I was age 5-9 she was my doctor. She was assigned to the convalescent hospital in Dockyard. It was a hospital for children from 1950-1958. This is where they put the disabled children and those with chronic diseases. Dr Barbara Ball taught the young girls about nursing, because the black girls could not learn in the KEMH facility back then.In 1958 the convalescent hospital was closed and the remaining patients were transferred to the new facility St Brendan’s Hospital. I went abroad to a boarding school for nine years. When I returned to Bermuda I went back to Dr Ball who had a private practice and I noticed that most of her patients were black. After a few years in her practice she joined the BIU as a negotiator for the working members of the Union, I guess she wanted justice for the coloured people at that time.As I got older and more politically inclined I learned that the hospital had a policy that was racial against white people that supported black people, in other words white doctors that had black patients could not practice in KEMH (it has a royal name, but it was a royal pain in the you know where). today I believe that is why we are short of black Bermudian nurses, because of the past medical policy during that time.I can recall when Dr Barbara Ball was protesting with the workers of Bermuda Electric Light Company when violence broke out and a police officer tried to arrest Dr Ball. She picked that officer up and threw him over a wall, which resulted in him becoming disabled for the rest of his life and had to retire from the Police Service. A lot of people did not know that she had a black belt in judo. When I was in boarding school I used to watch a televised show call the “Ed Solomon” show. It had announced that a guest from Bermuda was coming to show them “judo”, and low and behold it was Dr Barbara Ball, she was throwing grown men all around the studio. The last incident I witnessed was on Court Street outside of VL’s variety store, Dr Ball was coming in for a message when a young guy approached her and made a statement about her coming on Court Street. I tried to warn him but it was too late as Dr Ball threw him ten feet down the sidewalk. He got up and said to me, that woman is crazy. I told him she has a black belt in judo.Dr Barbara Ball was a kind hearted woman. She took a woman from off the street and gave her a home until she died. Dr Ball’s political career was an asset to Bermuda, as well as her Union involvement. It took a person like her to get things done and get some decent living wages for the members of the Union. Would someone of Dr Ball’s colour be willing to pick up the legacy, join the Union and fight for the justice for working people of this Island? If Dr Ball had a mean bone in her body it was for the whites of this country up to the day she died, racism is still alive and practised and will never go away in the life of all the Bermudians alive today.Dr Barbara Ball, Thank you for your contribution to this island as a doctor, a politician, a union negotiator and a judo teacher. You are like Frank Sinatra, you did it your way. All those who owed Dr Ball for your medical services, never mind now it has been paid in full.WS FOXSmith’s