ALBERTHA McDonald makes no secret of the fact that she loves food.

“Mi want banana and yam and dumpling and callaloo,” the 100-year-old commands as she is wheeled from the house into the yard of her Central Kingston home by her nephew.

“Oh my, it nice, man! It nice, you see. But you can give me the food with anything — callaloo or cabbage — but callaloo cook quicker,” she said, causing her relatives who had gathered in the large family yard to bust into laughter.

“Is tell she telling you that callaloo cook quicker than cabbage because she can’t wait,” one member of the family declared as the others nodded in agreement.

“Lawd ah want

food now,” McDonald continued. “Bring something fi me eat, man, for everybody just a chat and nah give me nothing.”

But despite her request, McDonald is no longer able to enjoy dumplings and can only eat soft yam and bananas.

On December 18, McDonald will celebrate her 101st birthday, at which time one of her two sons, Ernest, said he will ensure he provides her with not just one but two very cold Red Stripe beers, which she still truly enjoys.

“I will give you a joke. She will drink cold beer now. Very cold, too! Not just ordinary temperature, but very, very cold. In fact, mi going to double it for her birthday December, so instead of one I will give her two,” he said laughing.

“If she drunk, she not going anywhere. She laying down one place here,” he said, laughing again.

He, too, admits to his mother’s love for food and said she still eats a lot of fish, especially since her father was a fisherman who owned his own boat, and her mother, a baker.

Ernest said his mother washed for other people after her husband got a stroke and was unable to care for the family.

“She used to work and ensure that we went to school,” he said. “She is one of the most wonderful mothers. She teach me discipline, manners, respect and that I must try to help old people. That is why she live so long, man. Because her goodness live with her.”

Though she never hit her children, her son said her strong principles made him, his brother and two ‘adopted’ children respect her.

“My mother told me that she would put me at the doorway to sit when I was a little boy because she going to the shop, and when she come back she found me same place there. So she taught us obedience, and I was obedient to her,” he said. “Nice little lady, man.

“I love my mother so much that I was working on a ship when I was much younger and I went to the head office of the shipping line and put my mother’s name on the paylist so that every month she would go out there and collect her little dividends,” he said.

He explained that his mother was a revivalist who enjoyed dancing. That much was evident from the way she rocked from side to side in her wheelchair, while moving her hands as she demonstrated to relatives how she would dance at her Water Lane revival church.

While she is unable to see and hear clearly, this did not stop the centenarian from talking about things from her past.

“Mi did married to Natty [Nathaniel] McDonald. A long time that, you know, man,” she said, explaining that she could not remember when they were wed.

Her son interjected, saying that the wedding took place before he was born in the 1930s.

McDonald worked at her alma mater, St Michael’s All-Age School, as an ancillary staffer for a number of years.

She is now unable to walk and explained why.

“Doctor say him can’t do nothing fi mi. Doctor say mi cripple for life,” McDonald said in her usual mirthful tone.

Her granddaughter, Jacqueline Pennie, who plays an integral role in caring for her, explained that McDonald fell and broke her hip, which added to her inability to now walk.

“She used to use walker, but it got worse now. She fell and broke her hip in 2006. But she still used to use the walker, but it deteriorated over time, so earlier this year she stop walk,” Pennie said.

McDonald’s eldest nephew, 71-year-old Canute Aird, remembered his aunt as rearing ducks and goats for sale.

“She usually raise a whole lot of ducks and sell to a Chiney man,” he said. “And she used to raise goat, too. This yard used to be full

of goats.”

He said duck rearing was a tradition that was passed down to McDonald from her mother, as she, too, would raise a number of ducks and goats for sale. Unfortunately, he said, no one took up the tradition when McDonald was unable to continue years ago.

“This is where she lived all her life. She knows nowhere else and the yard would be full of goats and ducks,” Aird said.

Even after her marriage, McDonald never left her home.

Aird said McDonald has been called many names by persons, but the name used would be dependent on who was addressing her.

“Relatives and near neighbours call her ‘Aunt Tina’, other community members call her ‘Miss Mac’ and those who knew her well simply call her ‘Macky’,” Aird said.

He described her as very jovial and fun-loving person who was always baking cornmeal pudding, toto and coconut cake for the many children living in the yard.

“She would always bake it and cover it up and we would know when she bake it because we know her style,” Aird recalled. “So one of us would come and say ‘Aunt Tina, weh my pudding?’ and she would say ‘which pudding you asking about, you give mi pudding to put down? Go on and leave mi yah!’ and then she would say ‘Weh unnu tek mi fah, come, come’ and she cut it and give you a slice.

“By the time one person get a slice and move away she would see another one come and she would say ‘him must have to tell you eeh, him couldn’t keep him mouth shut? Next time mi not giving anybody nothing, unnu chat too much’. But that was just her style because she was always willing to give us because that is the reason she baked it in the first place. But that was her little style,” Aird said with a wide smile.

“And I recall she used to take a little one sip of ‘spirit’ inside,” he continued. “She stopped when she was in her 70s. I don’t know if you give her now if she would still take a sip, though.”