100 years of loving and serving
Published:Saturday | March 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer
HARKER'S HALL, St Catherine:
UP TO 1986, walking from West Prospect to the deep rural community of Harker's Hall, St Catherine, to visit her brothers-in-law was one of her favourite pastimes. However, there was nothing more pleasing to Selina Gayle than cooking for persons who visited the home of someone who has passed on.
"Anywhere the burying yard deh, it nuh make nuh sense me stay a fe mi yard, because dem a go send come call me fe come cook. Me always love cook a burying yard," Gayle chuckled.
But that was not the only thing the centenarian was passionate about.
"Me visit sick all about, because God made me to visit the sick. Anywhere the person was and sick and Selina Gayle hear, she gone. Me nah stay and when you go and come back, me ask you how the sick, me go look fe de sick and pray fe them me self," she told The Gleaner.
Eloquent and frank
Eloquent and frank, Miss Febie, as she is lovingly called, accepted Jeremiah Gayle's hand in marriage in 1939, the same year she got baptised in Bethel Baptist Church in Church Road, Bog Walk, where both served as deacons. However, in 1940, they relocated to Toms Hope in Port Antonio, Portland, with son, Clement. Not long after, fire of unknown origin gutted their home, so they returned to West Prospect.
In 1945, the woman whom many describe as the 'mother' of the community had Vin, her second child. Her desire to nurture children propelled her to adopt three girls, Maureen, Jennifer and Joyce. During her years of rearing her children, she worked on Tulloch, Dove Hall and New Hall estates in the parish.
Gayle lost her husband in September 2003, and as she reflects on her life, she attributes her longevity, particularly, the survival of Hurricane Charlie, which hit Jamaica in 1951 leaving 154 dead, 20,000 homeless, and causing £16 million in damage, to her Christian faith.
"It was a rough, rough storm, but whenever you trust the Lord, nutten nuh go wrong that you can't help youself," she reasoned. "If me never put me confidence in God, perhaps the storm woulda blow me way and oonu wouldn't come see me now fe come question me," she smiled cunningly.
Like many, Miss Febie's grand niece, Una Dillon, said, as a child, she was lured to the Gayles' house by their culinary skills.
Good cooking
"Aunt Febie's cooking was out of this world. But not only that, she and her husband used to bake Easter bun and I used to go to her house at that time," Dillion recounted. "I love the bun with the little ring around the side and the mongoose bread. I always got some of those and they were sweet," Dillon told The Gleaner during Gayle's 100th birthday party on February 22 at her West Prospect home.
It was an occasion where scores of family members and friends gathered to celebrate the life of the woman whom granddaughters Karlene and Denise Gayle credit for the values instilled in them as she figured significantly throughout their lives.
Though she might have missed some of what was said, being hearing impaired, the gracious and gleeful senior was appreciative of the tributes in songs and poetry.
"I thank the Lord for all who come and spend time and talk about me," Gayle told her guests. "I ask the Lord to have mercy upon you, guide and protect you, that you might reach home safe, that next time you can come back here come look for Selina Gayle,' said the centenarian in her closing remarks.