Features

Elsie Dobbs - sweet centenarian

A smiling Elsie Johnson-Dobbs - file

walderston, manchester

WHEN THE WEEKEND STAR visited the home of centenarian Elsie Johnson-Dobbs at Bakers Common in Manchester recently, the slightly build lady, with a crown of short snow-white hair, was sitting on her veranda enjoying a mango. She smiles as the nectar dripped from her sinewy fingers.

Laugh lines were the only wrinkles seen on the face of Mrs. Dobbs which belied a documented 103 years of life.

According to her baptismal record, she was born on January 15, 1902 to Frederick Johnson and Miss Henrietta Simmonds of Brainierd in St. Mary. Her mother died at the age of 98.

"Buenos Dias," she greeted the Star in a tremulous Spanish, in response to her adopted son Joseph Young's request for her to say hello. Mrs. Dobbs, who passed the first, second and third Jamaica local Examinations, worked locally as a teacher before migrating to Cuba where she spent 14 years.

On her return to Jamaica, she married Walter Dobbs of Christiana, Manchester, who predeceased her. There were no children of the union but they adopted several. One of them, Joseph, now takes care of her.

Mrs. Dobbs, when asked to what she attributed her long life said, "active living, obedience and trust in God."

Her caretaker said: "She eats anything. Her sight is good but her memory come and go."

As THE WEEKEND STAR left an almost eerie silence pervaded, punctuated only by the chirps of insects, adding to an atmosphere of calm and stress-free living.