Features

Be respectful and live long

Mrs Lena Berry. - Leighton Williams

CENTENARIAN LENA BERRY was born in a time when the least bit of disrespect by a child could earn him or her a proper hiding. However, whether it was by sheer luck or by being a good girl, Berry escaped the beating.

Berry, who showed us her birth certificate with her birth date as March 10, 1902, said her cooperation with her grandparents may be the reason she is alive until now.

"I wasn't unruly to my grandparents so I believe that's why I got an extra blessing. I didn't get any beatings because I tried my best to obey my grandparents, who I grew up with, at all times so that's probably why I have long life," she said.

Mrs. Berry, who has two sons and countless grand and great grandchildren, said although she knew her mother, it was her grandparents whom she spent her early years with in Moore Hill, St. Elizabeth. She smiled as she recalled eating from her grandparents' plate and developing her love for coffee due to them. She also recalled attending church with them every Sunday.

"Yuh couldn't stop from church. Stop from church? Yuh mad? Dem would a beat yuh an' cause mi neva want no beating mi mek sure mi go church every Sunday," she said.

Although no longer as fit as she would like, Mrs. Berry still washed her clothes and 'beat her coffee'. She said she still walks on her own and the only thing she does not do for herself is cook.

"Mi nuh allow har fi cook. Mi fraid a she an' di fire side," her son Denzil Sinclair said.

In addition, to having some amount of vim left in her body, Mrs. Berry described her hearing as being good. She said if someone were in the hills across from her home in Broad Leaf, Manchester, whispering, she would still be able to hear them. In terms of her sight, she once wore glasses but threw them away when she discovered she could read and see without them.

Berry said her only problem was remembering dates which was why she tried to keep all her important documents despite not being able to remember off the top of her head where she placed them.

"Mi caan remember weh mi put dem. But if mi need fi fin' dem mi wi ask Denzil an' him we look fi dem fi mi," she said.

Berry hopes to live long enough to see another hundred years as the only problem she has is pains in her waist.