Mama Lou, Jamaica's oldest resident, has died

Louisea McDonald, who was Jamaica's oldest resident, has died at age 111 – three months shy of her 112th birthday.

The centenarian, affectionately called Mama Lou died on September 3.

McDonald, a retired dressmaker from the rural community of Bog Hole in northern Clarendon, was born on December 1, 1910. 

Her daughter, Phyllis Black told The Gleaner that the centenarian died just moments after she (Black) sang to her one of her favourite Gospel songs and read her favourite Psalm.

"I read Psalms twenty-three, she held up her head and I left her to attend to something else on the veranda, and by the time I went back she was motionless," recalled Phyllis in an interview with The Gleaner on Friday . 

Black said her mother's lifeless body evoked a plethora of emotions in her, but she found solace in the fact that her mother lived a good and long life.

Mama Lou had 10 children, three of whom predeceased her, and over 100 grandchildren. 

She was lauded as a loving mother-figure to many in Bog Hole.

-Olivia Brown

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