Shun idle companions, says centenarian

A SMALL get-together with a large family and a few friends was how Brown’s Town centenarian Veronica Franklyn celebrated her 100th birthday on November 15, 2021.

Blessed with 11 children and a husband who was a provider, Franklyn, looking back, said there was no regret during her time growing up as a child in Tooting district in Lime Tree Garden, St Ann, or as an adult as she and her now late husband started their family.

The occasion wasn’t just about a wonderful, elderly lady marking a century on earth, it was also about her family showing just how much they love and appreciate her, as expressed in their kind words.

“I feel good as ever, I feel good, good,” she told The Gleaner. “Mi cyaa hear well again but otherwise nothing nuh wrong.”

Born in 1921, a time when Marcus Garvey was still active, and Sir Leslie Probyn was governor of a pre-independent Jamaica, there were few social activities for youngsters to partake in but Franklyn and her relatives found solace in worship.

“What we used to enjoy, we used to love the Lord; loved to go to meeting service, as you see the sun going down everybody, we just go and get ready ... service,” she said, explaining that a Pentecostal church on a hill near to their home in Tooting provided this opportunity.

“We go to school, we have concerts and as me was a little bright, I was always the head of everything. And then the teacher love us; it’s good to let your teacher love you.”

She spent her life as a housewife, raising her 11 children, ensuring they were brought up properly. Her husband was a farmer and a hard-working man, and from his farm they ate daily.

When the crop was low, she would step up and assist her husband in ensuring that food was provided for the family.

“I say, don’t worry, I’ll take care of that and when he come in, his nice cabbage, cooked; coconut run dung. I used to love yam, dumpling, banana, potato, all those things.”

“And corn pork!” her eldest son, Collins, interjected

Everyone on the veranda, where the interview was being done, laughed. Franklyn acknowledged his comment.

“We grow pigs, mi husband. And then we could kill a little pig and corn it; and we have wi keg, and wi corn wi pork nicely,” she pointed out.

Crime was not a factor in those early days and there was no need for fear.

“Not even duppy we nuh fraid fah, for dem naa trouble wi!” she said, again to laughter. “Wi sleep and leave we door wide open sometimes.”

Her advice to young people: “Shun idle companions; keep friends that can put you on the right track, who can tell you ‘don’t do that.’ Not everything you can follow.”

The eighth in line and the eldest male, Collins, known for his humour, said life was good growing up with his 10 siblings.

“It was good because it was like nine of us in two bedrooms so you know people under the bed,” he said, soliciting even more laughter.

“Life was good, we didn’t have any money but we never hungry. We never hungry but we wasn’t rich. We never have fridge, TV and dem tings deh, we have maybe a piece a battery radio; that would tell us when a hurricane is coming or when a prisoner escape and then everybody lock up early. We was afraid ah prisoner when dem escape in town.”

Leading the tribute to the centenarian was her bright eight-year-old great-granddaughter, Kaylee Ffoulkes.

“I love her, she’s very kind, she’s funny, she’s protective, and she’s a heart-warming person; she is very blessed,” Kaylee said.

Kaylee’s mother, Alia Franklyn, said of her grandmother: “I came here when I was three years old; based on what I heard, when I came here I clung to the tail of her dress and I’m still here, so it signifies a lot, that my grandma has done so much for me. She’s basically my mother.”