106 not out

WESTERN BUREAU:

Based on the availability of healthcare facilities and health practices by individuals across the country, the life expectancy of Jamaicans has increased over time, with persons living to the age of 70 years and over a common achievement. According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data published in 2018, life expectancy in Jamaica for a male is 73 .6 years, while that of a female is 78.5 years.

Born in Petersfield, Westmoreland, on February 20, 1916, Marie Louise Tate is now 106 years old, as of February 2022, and still going strong today, even after surpassing the WHO data on Jamaican life expectancy.

“I grew up in a home in Petersfield, wherein we all had trust in God and were all very religious,” she told The Gleaner during a recent interview, adding that she credits her religious faith, and the amount of exercise she got when she was younger and working, for her long life.

‘Auntie Marie’, as she is affectionately called by close friends and relatives, stated that she grew up among siblings from both her mother’s and her father’s side. She subsequently had three sons of her own – Carlton and Patrick Campbell, and Bertram Grandison.

“I attended the Petersfield Elementary School, which was right next door to the Anglican Church, of which I have been a member for 91 years now. I was confirmed when I was 15 years old,” emphasised Auntie Marie, whose parents were former Westmoreland Inspector of the Poor John Tate, and Emily Richardson.

Auntie Marie now lives a few miles from her birthplace, Petersfield, in the area of Amity, also in Westmoreland, with her eldest son Carlton, where she has been residing for a few years now.

She did not name a favourite dish, explaining that she would enjoy whatever the children liked, but would not leave out her rice and peas on Sundays.

“I like chicken; and that ackee and salt fish is like a favourite dish for everyone in the house, and the roast breadfruit. I like when the breadfruit is slightly turn before you roast it,” she confided with a broad smile.

One regret

When asked if she were to live her life all over again, if she would do anything differently, Auntie Marie responded in the affirmative.

“I don’t think I would work so hard as I did in my younger days coming up. I had my children, yes, and I was not married, but I had help,” she stated, arguing that she would have loved to spend more time with her kids, as she did not know what happened to them when she was gone to work.

However, she said that although there were good role models in the home where she grew her children, she would have loved to spend more time with them.

“When I was old enough and started to work, sometimes I had to walk from Petersfield to Frome in the early-morning hour, where I was the head person in a manager’s house ... I had to be there (at work) on time, and I had to walk to work,” she pointed out.

She recalled that there was one bicycle in her home, but she allowed her eldest son to ride it to school – Manning’s School – in Savannah-la-Mar, and she would walk the five-mile journey to work.

At 106 years old, Auntie Marie still has all her physical and mental faculties intact, except her sight, which, according to her son Carlton, she lost in 2015.

“I have one special friend, and she is alive and over 100 years old, too – Mrs Iris Vassell – and we still communicate whenever we can,” Auntie Marie stated, adding “like how things are now, we do not see each other at church. We used to meet at church every Sunday, but things are so different now,” she stated.

Auntie Marie’s son, Carlton, told The Gleaner that his mom is from a family of long-livers, especially among the females.

“The females in the family, as far as I know, are all centenarians. My grand-aunt was 103, my aunt was 100, my grandmother was 100, all before they passed, and my mother is now 106,” he pointed out.

Checks made by The Gleaner have revealed that there are approximately nine registered centenarians with the National Council for Senior Citizens now living in the parish of Westmoreland.