Kirt and Amanda

From bus-stop beauty to lady love

< Previous Article | Next Article >

Photography by Studio Studio

• Add to Isle Faves
• Email to a Friend
• Print Article

A BEAUTIFUL GIRL in a Coleridge & Parry School uniform standing at a bus stop in St Peter caught the eye of Kirt Hinds, as he was driving past the bus stop one morning. Her face registered, and lingered, and he could not help wondering whether he would ever see that schoolgirl again.

He did. It was a few years later that he spotted an attractive young woman waiting outside the Barbados Community College (BCC), and immediately recognised the face. The girl who caught his eye that fateful morning was indeed Amanda Moore, who was now a BCC student.

Excitedly Kirt called out to "the prettiest girl who went to CP" as he passed by on his way from work at the Grantley Adams International Airport, and he would see her many times after this, standing on the same spot, but his "Hi, my friend" was always met with a cold "Hi".

The day Kirt happened upon his "beauty" shopping in Bridgetown with her mother, he boldly approached her, wasting no time introducing himself. Amanda was taken aback, and moreso, when Kirt asked for her telephone number.

"I was like, oh my gosh, not in front of my mum," said Amanda. Her concern was that "my mum and dad are very strict Christians, and my mum is always like, 'my daughter can't talk to any many until she is 40 . . . she can't get married until she is 40' . . . and my dad was like nobody is ever good enough for his daughter". Instead, Amanda's mother was a polite onlooker.

Anticipating "a big lecture" when she got home, Amanda declined giving her telephone number, but asked Kirt for his, and promised to call him.

It was the opportune moment for Kirt to boldly ask, "Is this my future mother-in-law?"

Amanda did make that call, the start of a friendship with Kirt. But her studies of law and politics at the BCC took precedence and she refused to allow the friendship to get in the way. In fact, "it slowed down at one point", she said, and was even broken off as Amanda fell into a routine of "home, church, study".
"But I never gave up," Kirt interjected. He kept contact through the rapport he had by now established and was continuing to build with Amanda's parents.

Amanda's exams were finally over and Kirt was looking forward to getting back into a relationship with her. The two did "get back together" later, often meeting for the occasional stroll on the Wickham Boardwalk, and their phone lines were kept hot. Calls to each other were incessant.

Amanda recounted it was on October 20, 2007, that "I finally gave in to him asking me out, and we had our first date".

Kirt arranged to take his "beautiful" girlfriend to a show staged by her favourite dance hall artiste Vibes Cartel. It was a celebration to mark the anniversary of their meeting, an anniversary that they continue to honour each year.

"I was all nerves. I can't believe I am doing this with this person that gets on my nerves," Amanda recalled.

But a persistent Kirt had been reasoning: "I know this show is coming, I know she really loves Vibes Cartel's music . . . I told myself, 'You know what, Kirk, you need her attention, why not take her out for this show'".

He did not get a positive response when he first called to extend the invitation, but, knowing she was taking a shopping trip to Bridgetown to purchase an outfit for the show which she was planning to attend on her own, he offered to take her to Bridgetown.

It was an opportune time to try to secure the date. His approach – "So tell me, is the date on or not? You should give me a try . . . for one, I am not an abusive guy, I have lots of female family and I would not like to see anyone mistreat them. So you can guarantee that I would not mistreat you." Amanda took his word. The date was on.

For Kirk that moment of acceptance brought "nuff joy inside me".

The two went their separate ways to shop, only to discover later they had bought matching outfits.
The relationship "sprung from there", with evenings often spent together at dinner, walks on the Boardwalk, and other shared activity, so intense, a decision was taken to have Amanda live at Kirt's home. Because of her job she was already living on her own.

She was at first welcomed into Kirt's home, but tensions later developed.

So strained was the atmosphere that "It put me in the hospital with a stress attack, I had an asthma attack from the stress. I remained in the hospital for about three days and he stood by me all the way," Amanda stated.

The problem would be further exacerbated when Amanda and Kirt moved to a rented apartment, taking to live with them, a child whom he had assumed responsibility for fostering before meeting Amanda.
"It was like our adopted daughter, but neither of us was mummy nor daddy biologically," Kirt remarked, though together they made a special home for the little girl . . . until, bowing to pressure, they returned her to Kirt's relatives.

It was especially heartbreaking for Amanda who suffered asthma attacks, weight loss, problems eating. Having to give up the little girl on whom they had showered so much love, left Amanda feeling depressed.
Kirt remained at her side, one of the reasons she says: "He is my hero".

In one of those 'heroic' acts, Kirt braved afternoon rush hour traffic, his car's hazard lights flashing, speeding the wrong way on a one-way street, even overtaking a police vehicle, to get Amanda to a hospital while she was experiencing a severe asthma attack. His boldness secured a police escort to the hospital, by the very police vehicle he had overtaken.