A life of learning, faith and kindness: Joyce Rattray’s century of purpose

At an age when many would be content to reflect on the past, Joyce Annabelle Rattray is still looking ahead.

She is teaching herself Spanish, learning to play the guitar, listening to audiobooks and working on arts and crafts projects. Her sharp mind remains engaged, her hands remain busy, and her faith remains central to a life that has taken her from Cuba to Jamaica and, eventually, the United States.

For Rattray, born July 26, 1926, longevity is a blessing for which she readily gives thanks to God.

She also credits God’s mercy, a lifetime of exercise, and a vegetarian diet for carrying her through a life filled with change, challenge and service to others.

Born in Miranda, Cuba, Rattray spent the first six years of her life there, accumulating memories that have remained vivid even after more than nine decades.

She remembers her father returning home from work with animal crackers, the unusual excitement of hail falling and collecting it, and Sunday School being held in the barracks where the family lived.

There were outings to the park, where she played on the slide, and childhood mishaps, including the day her little brother fell from a swing and had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

Then there was her first experience at the cinema.

Watching a woman eat spaghetti on the screen, young Joyce became convinced that she was watching someone eat worms.

She cried.

But her childhood in Cuba would not last.

From Miranda, she was taken to Santiago and then to a quarantine facility before boarding a ship bound for Jamaica. Her father remained in Cuba.

She never saw him again.

The journey to Jamaica also produced a moment that she believes changed the course of her life.

As her mother loaded herself and the other children onto the vessel, young Joyce began falling into the gap between the pier and the yacht.

A stranger grabbed her and pulled her to safety.

More than 90 years later, she has never forgotten the act of kindness.

Were it not for him, she believes, she would not be here today.

A NEW LIFE IN GREENWICH TOWN

Joyce, her mother and siblings eventually settled in Greenwich Town, St Andrew, where she attended basic school, Whitfield Primary School and later Greenwich All-Age School.

It was there that her determination began to show itself.

Academically driven, she attended evening classes while still in school to prepare for the Jamaica Local Examination. She passed, qualifying for entry into nursing, the Post Office or teaching.

She chose teaching.

At 21, Joyce began her career as a pupil teacher.

But becoming a teacher was only the beginning of her education.

While working, she attended evening classes at Buxton College and summer classes at The Mico Teacher Training College. She passed her first- and second-year teaching examinations and continued developing professionally.

In December 1953, she married her longtime friend, Dr Lloyd George Rattray.

Together, they had two children, Garth and Ann-Marie.

But motherhood did not put an end to her academic ambitions.

Rattray enrolled as a full-time student at the Moneague Teacher Training College, where she graduated as a fully qualified teacher. She returned to teaching at Greenwich school and later welcomed her third child, Fitz-George.

TEACHER, MENTOR, COUNSELLOR

For 20 years, Rattray taught at Greenwich before moving from Greenwich Town and joining the staff of Norman Manley Secondary School.

By then, her niece, Andrea, had also become her ward and joined the family.

At Norman Manley, Rattray taught mathematics before taking another turn in her career.

She became the school’s work experience supervisor and later decided to pursue yet another field of study.

She went to The University of the West Indies to study guidance counselling.

In a moment that neatly captured her lifelong commitment to education, Mrs Rattray graduated at the same graduation ceremony as her older children.

She went on to serve for many years as a guidance counsellor at Norman Manley Secondary.

When she eventually retired, the school gave her what her family remembers as the biggest send-off ever organised for a retiring staff member — a reflection of the affection, admiration and respect she had earned over the years.

Even retirement did not mean slowing down.

Rattray went to work in her older son’s medical office, serving as receptionist and bookkeeper.

A LIFE OF FAITH

Threaded through her career, family life and travels has been a deep and enduring faith.

A devout Methodist, Rattray was closely affiliated with the Greenwich Town Methodist Church, where she was an active member in almost every sense.

She taught Sunday School, occasionally played the organ, sang in the choir, conducted adult Bible study classes, visited the sick, and chaired both the finance committee and the stewardship committee.

When she migrated to the United States (US) more than 30 years ago after helping to care for her first grandchild, Savannah, she continued her church life.

At Freeport United Methodist Church in Long Island, New York, she sang on the choir, participated in Bible study, and joined the group Table Talk to Action.

She now attends St Paul United Methodist Church in Georgia.

STILL LEARNING

Travel also became part of Rattray’s life.

She toured Europe, Central America, Canada and the US before eventually settling in the latter.

Yet, even in her later years, the former teacher has remained a student.

She taught herself higher mathematics so that she could tutor her granddaughter and help prepare her for college matriculation. Today, she is learning Spanish and the guitar,while continuing to enjoy audiobooks and her arts and crafts.

For someone who spent a lifetime teaching others, learning remains one of life’s enduring pleasures.

Earlier this year, another generation was added to the family when her youngest son’s daughter, Katherine, gave birth to baby Katelyn, making Rattray a great-grandmother.

All of her siblings are now deceased, but she remains surrounded by the legacy of the family she helped to build.

She speaks proudly of her children, grandchildren and ward, readily telling anyone who will listen that they have all done well and have made her proud.

KINDNESS AS A CALLING

If there is a lesson that runs through Rattray’s long life, it is kindness.

She has tried to practise it in both word and deed, particularly towards those less fortunate.

As a teacher, she treated her students as though they were her own children.

Her work extended beyond the classroom, with free after-school classes, music, guiding, dance instruction and netball coaching, all forming part of the contribution she made to generations of young people.

Perhaps it is fitting that one of her most enduring memories is also an act of kindness from a stranger.

More than 90 years after a man reached out and saved a little girl from falling into the water between a pier and a yacht, Rattray has spent much of her own life reaching out to others.

Today, she is happy and at peace.

And, as she looks back across a life that began in Cuba, flourished in Jamaica and continued in the US, she gives thanks — for faith, family, learning, service and the mercy that, she believes, has carried her through.

For Rattray, a long life has not simply been measured in years.

It has been measured in the people she taught, the lives she touched, the family she nurtured, and the kindness she never forgot.