Approximately half the students at BYU-Hawaii come from over 70 countries around the world — including only one from the southeastern Caribbean island nation of Grenada, Salisha Allard [pictured at left].
The young woman was born into rough circumstances. Money was hard to come by, and when she was only nine years old her mother died of cancer. "Her last words were, Salisha, I love you. I am sorry but mommy has to go now, there is nothing I can do," Salisha remembered.
Salisha recalled that she felt incredible sadness then, but that "the pain hurts me much more now, because now I really feel what it's like to not have a mother. I miss her so much," she said.
After her mother's death, Salisha went to live with her 69-year-old father, who she had to take care of. "I didn't have any friends. No one would play with me. I was known as the girl who lived with an old man in an old house," she continued.
A good woman who lived close by, took to looking after Salisha and providing her with motherly experiences, even teaching her skills that would last her a lifetime. "She taught me to read! Because I didn't have any friends I would just read all the time."
Life was beginning to get back to normal after awhile when the unthinkable happened: "In Grenada we are warned about hurricanes all the time but they never happened. When I was 15 there was a warning but not many people prepared because no one thought it would actually happen."
The hurricane hit with gigantic force. "When the winds came I was scared. I watched our neighbors roof fly off of their house and the mango tree that was outside of our house lost all of its branches in a second," she said.
Salisha and her father were forced to take refuge in less than ideal circumstances. "I hid under a bench in our house and my father went under our table. Our whole house was being lifted and then dropped back on the ground. I was so scared that I started screaming for my mom, who had died. I think I wanted her to save me."
Sadly, her home's tiny frame was no match for this powerful force of nature. "I don't know what happened, but just, boom! The entire house fell and I was exposed to the outside. Right then, I promised Heavenly Father that if He would get me through this that I would change my life," she said.
Little did Salisha know that her family's refrigerator was losing its balance and was about to slam into the bench where she was hiding. "God listened to me and worked a miracle. A man saw me and rescued me right before it fell. When it fell, it smashed the bench into pieces. I don't understand how God did that. He saved me."
Salisha ran to safety but quickly realized she was all by herself. "My dad was not with me. I didn't know where he was. I started screaming, daddy, daddy come! But he couldn't come because the wind was too heavy. I was so worried because he was old, he was 74," she said.
Eventually, she and her father were reunited, but the storm took its toll on him. "He was never the same after the storm, he was much weaker." One day, Salisha came home to a nightmare. "When I arrived home, he told me that he wasn't feeling well. I told him that he would feel better later so I went into my room to read."
Later, the Spirit told Salisha to check on her father. "As soon as I saw him, the cup that he was holding fell from his hand. Then the stroke started acting on him. His tongue went to one side and he was shaking." Mumbling, he instructed Salisha to call an ambulance. She promptly followed his instruction, but when she returned to her father's side, he was in worse condition.
"When I got back, my dad's eyes were twisting and turning, just like in the movies. I couldn't watch him. He kept on calling me, but I couldn't go. Something held me back. I couldn't face him. I thought it was too much for me at that point."
An ambulance took her father to the nearest hospital. In tears, Salisha described what happened next: "He spent 21 days in the hospital. He was not able to talk and he didn't know anyone. There were only some days, when he got a little better and he was asking the nurses for me. When I got there, he couldn't talk, he couldn't touch me. But then, he didn't survive and he didn't come home," said Salisha, who was orphaned at 15.
The kind-hearted woman who had previously helped took Salisha into her home and became her adoptive mother. "She was so nice to me. She bought me my first pair of sandals. I had sandals before, but never any that were brand new," she recalled.
Even though Salisha now had a very strong and supportive woman in her life, there was still a large hole that needed to be filled. "One day I was invited to go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I got there and I felt something special. I remembered that I told God that if He saved me in the hurricane, I would change my life," she said.
She attended on the first Sunday of the month, when Latter-day Saints share their testimonies with each other as moved by the Spirit. "I couldn't help it. I had to get up and bear my testimony. I told everyone that I needed to be baptized right then because I was dying for God and I needed Him in my life right then," she said.
The missionaries agreed to baptize Salisha, but explained she would need to be taught the doctrines of the Church first. In just one year, Salisha survived a hurricane, became an orphan and was baptized into her new Latter-day Saint faith.
This newfound religion provided Salisha with newfound hope. "Instead of being known as the poor girl, I became known as the church girl. I loved this because I knew that Heavenly Father would take care of me. I was aware of who God was and I had a relationship with Him."
In the Church Salisha found wonderful role models, such as Keri Johnston, one of her youth leaders. "One day Keri asked me if I would want to go to BYU. Of course I wanted to go, but I never believed that it was going to happen. Being so poor, I never pictured myself at school," she said.
Johnston took the initiative and found a sponsor. Salisha said, "There is a family who decided to help sponsor me with Keri, but I don't know who that family is. They wanted to be anonymous. I was so happy! I couldn't believe that I was coming to Hawaii to go to school. I wanted to do something to pay back Keri and this other family that was helping me so much! I asked her what I could do."
With much love, Johnston gave Salisha a wise response. "She told me to get an education, to get money and to help someone else. Give what I have given to you to someone else."
Salisha is now doing just that. She is majoring in English and has dreams of teaching English to children in her country. She also wants to provide them with a safe environment to live and grow.
"I've always dreamed of having a home for poor kids to live in where they would be safe. I want to teach but they cannot learn if they are hungry. They cannot learn if they do not have their basic needs met. I want to give them love, motivation and food. I am going to give my life to them to help. I do not want them to grow up and suffer, the way I did. I know the most important thing in my country, for it to develop and to grow is education," she said. "Education is so powerful, no one can take it away from you."
— Photo by Larrin Wada