Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter

Sunday morning, Shelly-Ann Fraser fulfilled a dream her mother and two of her aunts had always dreamt when she took home Jamaica's first gold medal in the women's 100-metres final at an Olympic Games.

Fraser won the race in a fast 10.78 seconds ahead of compatriots Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart who tied for second place in 10.98 seconds.

But Fraser's yearning for gold was never one unique to her. Her mother and two of her aunts always dreamt of becoming professional athletes.

"Three a we a runner," her aunt Althea Simpson says. Fraser's mother, Maxine Simpson, ran for Papine Secondary (now Papine High) in northeast St Andrew, and aunts Althea and Viviene Simpson ran for Haile Selassie Secondary (now Haile Selassie High) in southwest St Andrew.

All good

They were all good, Althea remembers, she and Viviene being particularly good at the 400m and 800m events, while Maxine was an all-rounder.

"We did fast, man, and we get whole heap of medal and certificate but plenty of them lost now because when the hurricane and so pass them get wet up and throw away," she says.

But their dreams were never to be because of the hard circumstances the family endured as they grew up.

"Tru our father died when we were young and so our mother couldn't really manage, because it was 14 of us," says Althea. Some of the children had to find jobs at an early age and on top of that, Althea and Maxine got pregnant while still teenagers. Althea was 17 years old when she got pregnant.

Althea's son, Kirk Johnson, was the family's next-best bet to accomplish their dream of mining gold. He started to shine in the sport while a student at the St Andrew Technical High School but problems developed.

"Him have a problem with him eye and it keep him back," she says.

Then came Shelly-Ann. Maxine recognised her daughter's talent from early.

"Her mother couldn't ketch her fi beat her," her aunt, Juliet Simpson, told The Gleaner.

Shining

And the young talent went on to shine at the George Headley Primary School and later, as a teen at Wolmer's School for Girls.

"When Maxine see that Shelly could a run now she just encourage her, even though she never have the money to give her sometimes. Rochelle (Fraser's pet name) would a just say to her: 'Just give me the bus fare Mommy and me all right'," Althea recalls.

"Shelly just a fulfil our dream right now. We were looking to ourselves like that. But when we did run in a time when they just give we medal and dat was just it," she adds.

Lifelong dream

On Sunday, God himself answered Maxine Simpson's prayer to see her lifelong dream fulfilled through her daughter.

"Thank you Jesus! Thank you for my daughter!" she cried as she fell to her knees on realising her daughter had copped gold.

Later on, as the dream began to settle into reality, she said.

"Nuff good things can come out the ghetto." Good things can come out a Waterhouse as long as you have ambition."