BY TASHIEKA MAIR, Star Writer
Mrs Delcie Walker - FILE
WESTERN BUREAU
THE BIBLE SAYS 'our years are three score and ten' but for Mrs. Delcie Walker her walk with God, coupled with healthy meals, has afforded her 102 years.
Mrs. Walker was born on January 12, 1904, in the community of Logan in St. James, to parents Ann Kerr and William Sterling.
She attended the Bluehole Elementary School in the area. She says that as a child she enjoyed playing ball games with her peers.
"Wi use to play baseball; bat ball wid wi hand and run pan boundary," she recalls.
When she left school she found employment at the Tryall Estate in Hanover where she would cut grass and sugar cane.
Mrs. Walker was also a very good seamstress as all the cushions and even her dress were made by her. She stopped sewing some two years ago.
In 1966, she married Obadiah Walker and the couple had three girls and six boys. All but one are alive today. Her husband died in 1977, 11 years after they became husband and wife. She has 20 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
PLEASANT PERSONALITY
An unfortunate incident happened to her when she was very young, which caused her to lose her sense of hearing.
Her grand-daughter, Diana Plumber explained "She used to walk from very far with heavy load. One day she was carrying a basket of breadfruit. When she reached her destination she could not take the load off her head so she called someone to help her. She said the minute the basket was off her head her ears failed her."
As time progressed her hearing got worse. But all through this she always kept a pleasant personality and a jovial spirit.
Mrs. Walker told THE STAR Life&Times, with the help of her granddaughter and great grandchild, that when she was a child the cost of living was never so high and there was hardly ever any crime in the country.
She also notices the progress made in terms of the fact that people no longer have to travel great distances because now they have the services of cars and other forms of transport.
"She has been a Christian most of her life. She was a member of the Pentecostal church for 15 years but switched allegiance to the Flowerhill Seventh Day Adventist church where she is still a member and frequent attendee. On her 100th birthday she went to church and testified to the young people there that they needed to seek God if they wanted a happy long life," her granddaughter said.
Mrs. Walker said, "I live long because me drink a whole heap a bush tea. You wouldn't know dem deh bush. Some of the young people I tell did drink it but some a dem say dem not drinking no bitter bush."
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to 