The Jamaica Star :: Life& Times :: The good-old days of Casilda Hayles

Kimoni Harris, Staff Reporter

Casilda Hayles at the Rolph Grant Senior Citizens' Home. - Kimoni Harris

To live to be 100 years old or more, is certainly a blessing. And that's exactly how Casilda Hayles felt on July 10, when she celebrated her 102nd birthday.

Born in Kellits, Clarendon, Hayles is a very amiable and unassuming woman. A lover of banana, yam and breadfruit, Hayles said, "I loved those things, I don't eat much again and I don't fancy rice anymore."

When the STAR visited the Rolph Grant Senior Citizens' Home in Kingston, where Hayles has lived for 20 years, she was as pleasant as ever. A hearing impediment forced the newsteam to shout the questions, which seemed to bother one of her peers at the home, Hayles, however was more than accommodating.

Outlived family

She spoke proudly of a granddaughter who is now in a prominent job in Ocho Rios and went on to add that she has outlived her family. "My husband died many years ago and I had two boys who are now deceased. I was also a foster mother, I fostered two children who are now grown with children of their own," she said.

"Bwoy, I used to travel to town all the time and visit my sister when I was younger. I also remember I have been at this home from 1988. I know that I used to sew for a living and make pretty clothes. In her list of things she used to do she added, "I used to go to church but from the cataract take over my eyes, I can't move up and down so good, and I don't want to be a bother to anyone, so I just stay here and worship God in my heart.

"When I was in the country, I eat every likkle thing. In mango season, I eat a lot of mango, and anything in season, I eat a lot of it," said Hayles.

I used to play ring games and all those things, I still love to sing Sammy Plant Piece a Corn Dung a Gully and I Am A Child Of the King. I was a chorister, I used to sing on the choir and I love to recite poems and so on, my voice gone now though."

Hayles added "I was confirmed in the Baptist church from a young age, being that I was under my parents' control, I had to be a Christian."

Jamaica has changed

At 102, she is concerned about how much Jamaica has changed. "I am so scared now. One time I would come to town and not worry, but now, with these gunmen today, anything is possible. When I was a little girl, we used to travel on the train, but later on we started travelling by bus. I used to love sitting in the bus and wait for it to drive off, but we can't live those lives again. Things and times have changed. People can't run risks again, they will kill you."

An accepting Hayles said, "I am happy with life now, I just hold on to God and he keeps me going. God is my strength and my deliverer, I hold on to God at all times.

The fact that I am able to hold on to God makes me very happy."