Centenarian credits her longevity to eating farm-grown food

A quiet Lillian Leslie was sitting on her doorstep enjoying the cool of the afternoon when The Gleaner visited her West Prospect, St Catherine, home on Thursday.

“Mi nuh suh strong and hearty again. I can’t walk down the steps like you,” she said.

She was born on January 22, 1920 and recently celebrated her 101st birthday, a milestone she is grateful to experience.

Leslie is the only surviving sibling of her parents’ six daughters.

In her early years, she attended Tulloch Elementary School, now Tulloch Primary School, where she received basic education.

For several years, Leslie worked at Tulloch Estate in St Catherine as a farmhand.

“Mi climb orange tree and pick basket of orange when di truck dem ago come. Mi weed up coffee root and all plant coconut too. I did lots of work because that time I was younger and stronger,” the centenarian reflected.

While working, she started her family but pointed out that she was never married. Leslie gave birth to six children – five daughters and a son. One of her daughters predeceased her.

Leslie recalled that she regularly attended a Seventh-day Adventist Church and longs to enter the halls for worship, but that may not become a reality owing to old age and COVID-19 restrictions.

SURROUNDED BY OFFSPRING

She shared that it is a pleasure to be surrounded by her grandchildren and great grandchildren, as the majority of them live in close proximity to her.

“Mi love dem. They are not rude cause I discipline dem,” she said, adding that they are respectful.

Markesha Cameron-Senior, one of her many grandchildren, told The Gleaner that Leslie relishes mealtime.

“She enjoys calling her grandchildren and sharing her food with them. When she’s eating, she ensures that everyone around her is fed. She also loves talking to her grandchildren, listening to music, watching the TV and talking about old time days,” the 36-year-old said.

Leslie does not have a special diet. In fact, dumpling is the only food item that she rejects.

“It is too coarse, so it can’t pass my throat,” Leslie chimed in.

“She always says that she likes chicken back, breadfruit, coco and dasheen. A lot of times she says she wish those days could come back so that she could plant dasheen and wait til it is ready,” Cameron-Senior detailed.

She added that her grandmother was a wonderful cook and spent a lot of time in the kitchen, up until 15 years ago.

She said had they not insisted that she stops cooking, she would’ve continued to this day.

“We grew up really poor and when my mother didn’t have anything to give us to eat and she left to go work and come back, as she stepped out my grandmother start to get something to cook for us. She has been taking care of us from a tender age, taking off diapers, coming right up,” she said with a smile.

Farm-grown food, a cheerful spirit, and love for everyone she comes in contact with have contributed to the longevity of her life.

Leslie told The Gleaner that she loves to see people living in love and unity.

“I don’t like to hear the quarrelling,” she quipped.

The centenarian walks with limited support from her caregiver, and does not suffer from any non-communicable diseases.

She has a lingering pain in her throat which can be corrected through surgery, but the family has opted not to do so because of her age.

“I think I can reach 110, even though mi cyah move as mi should,” she said with a grin.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com