Centenarian Hilda Parry (in bed) with her caregivers, Orlene Deer (centre) and Lilieth Lewis. - tashieka mair

western bureau

"Me deh pon di last, but mi giving God thanks," 100-year-old Hilda Parry said as she spoke of the pain she was feeling because of a cold and arthritis.

Parry, who celebrated her 100th birthday on October 31, was humourous as she recalled some of the most memorable times of her life.

She could recall her elementary school teacher from her hometown of Friendship in Hanover.

Memorable fight

One memory that is most vivid, is that of a fight she had with a classmate who wrote her name on a list of students talking in class, even though she says she was not in the class that day.

"She keep telling me that I was talking and I tell har I wasn't talking and she give me a flogging yu si,"she recalled.

"I get in a piece of temper and I grab har yu see, and drag har 'cross di room, but she give me some lick."

She said that her grandmother, Sarah Ann Pugh, was sent a letter from the teacher and took the decision to take her out of school, despite the pleas of the teacher to let her stay. Parry thereafter became a domestic helper.

The third of six children, Parry is the only surviving child born to Mary Walker and Richard Hall.

Unfortunately for this centenarian, though she was married, she had one miscarriage and she and her late husband, Zephaniah never had any children.

However, her neighbours, Lilieth Lewis and Orlene Deer of Felicity Road (Blood Lane), ensure that she is fed and cared for.

stubborn woman

"Me a one stubborn woman, if me tell you seh me not doing something it, no mek no sense you tell me fi do it 'cause me only say what me mean," Parry told The Star.

She also recalled how much she loved to cook 'good food' and said that she still has a healthy appetite.

"When me use to cook food, lawd have mercy, some things what me eat inna God world, a caan tell you," she said, laughing.

"Mi use to cook fish fi me husband, but him nuh love when the fish dem big so him always give mi back and is that me did love."

Parry, a member of the Rose Heights Revival Church in Montego Bay, believes that only when people obey the Bible - by living up to the standards set by God - that they are guaranteed blessings and a long life.