Centenarian Austin Wright worried about nation’s youth

WESTERN BUREAU:

At 100 years old, Austin Wright of Mafoota, St James, is a symbol of discipline, hard work, and perseverance, having endured many trials, including health issues, which spanned from his childhood days to old age.

Wright, who was born in Burnt Savanna, St Elizabeth, on June 11, 1925, celebrated his enviable milestone yesterday with family members and close friends at his home in Mafoota.

“I feel all right, you know. Until now, I give God thanks that I am not feeling any pain. Pressure buck me up and arthritis catch me, too, but I do all my work with all of that,” Wright told The Gleaner, amid the celebration of his birthday.

Despite having suffered a recent stroke and requiring a cane to walk, and at times having trouble recalling specific details, Wright was still alert and clear in speech as he outlined spending part of his childhood shuttling back and forth between the Burnt Savanna community and Mt Horeb in St James, while his mother, Olga Boothe, worked to support him and his younger brother as a single parent.

“My mother had two of us, but we were fatherless, so she had to do outside work to mind us. She used to go out and weed people’s yards, things like that, and that is what she used to do to take care of us,” recalled Wright. “Things were very bad back then, so we went out and worked for people. I was working with a teacher, doing domestic work at the teacher’s house, and that time I was about 10 years old. Afterward, I worked for a dentist, cleaning people’s teeth, and I was about 12 years old.”

FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT

As he grew older, despite spending three months in hospital for a heart condition at one point, Wright took on other forms of employment, including working on road construction in Negril, Westmoreland, during the 1960s. He also became a farmer, establishing three fish ponds and growing crops such as Irish potatoes, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes in Mafoota. In 1962, he married his wife Gwendolyn Ellis, now deceased, with whom he had 11 children.

Wright was a regular fixture at the annual Montpelier Agricultural Show in St James, which he started attending during the 1980s, though he cannot recall the exact year. He said he had won at least three medals at the show for growing prize-winning crops. Unfortunately, he no longer has the medals in his possession.

“One time, I won the first prize in St James for one yam, and there was no other yam that could compare to my own. I grew one bunch of banana, and two persons had to carry it. They gave me about three medals, but I do not remember what happened to them,” said Wright.

Wright’s daughter, Beulah Wright-McKenzie, recalled that when she was young, her father was a strict disciplinarian who prioritised his children’s well-being.

“He was the strictest man in the world. No girl child could wear pants in his house, and we got a lot of beatings from him. Him nuh ramp when it come to beating, and it was only church we could go to and come back,” said Wright-McKenzie. “One thing about him, though, we were never out of food, and he was not afraid to cook for us.”

While expressing gratitude for being around for the past century, Wright says he is concerned about the future of Jamaica’s current generation of youth people and, despite his age, he still tries to be a mentor to those with whom he comes in contact.

“I am afraid for this young generation because the first thing is that they do not want to work, and from you do not want to work, you are going to steal,” said Wright. “When I see them, I reason with them, and I say, ‘Do this, do that, and don’t bother with these kinds of things’.

“Some of them will listen, but for some, it goes in one ear and out the other, and they are dying fast,” added Wright.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com