The torrential rains pelting the packed morning ceremony for The University of the West Indies (UWI) presentation of graduates 2017 on Friday could well have been the proverbial showers of blessings for Floyd Emerson Morris, Jamaica’s first blind senator and former senate president.
The outright show of emotion and the spontaneous standing ovation that erupted as Morris stepped forward to receive his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree were the icing on the cake, but masked the journey of unimaginable courage of this extraordinary Jamaican.
Thirty-one years before becoming only the second blind Jamaican to receive his PhD, Morris left St Mary High School in the eastern parish without a single subject, mainly because his sight had deteriorated so badly that he was unable to complete his Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams.
