ALDIN Pinnock is now 105, but the retired basic school principal would still be in the classroom if she could.

Pinnock, who still manages to move around her home on her own, loves children.

“Sometimes she say she want to keep school and I have to remind her that she is retired,” Pinnock’s daughter-in-law and caregiver Marvia Kerr Pinnock told the Jamaica Observer during a recent visit to the senior’s home in Great Pond, Ocho Rios.

Years ago Pinnock, more popularly known as ‘Miss Mama’, started a school in her home. That school grew to what is now Great Pond Basic School, providing an early start for many children in the community.

Residents of Great Pond say Pinnock is a community stalwart, a heroine. The mother of seven, four of whom have predeceased her, has laid the foundation for hundreds since the 1950s, educating many, they say.

Pinnock was no ordinary teacher; she also made it her duty to be mother to the children in her care.

“That is why they call her ‘Miss Mama’,” her daughter-in-law said. “She was their teacher, mother, doctor…”

So dedicated was Pinnock to her students that many often went home with her after school, sleeping at her house.

“She is kind, loving and caring. Dem no have to worry when dem come a Miss Mama,” Kerr-Pinnock said. She said Pinnock also made it her duty to make items of clothing and take to school for the children.

“She put them in her lap and teach them to write. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanics pass though her hand,” she added.

Although she now has a challenge hearing, an excited Pinnock recalled some of her early years.

“Mi use to cut grass from woodland to mulch yam,” she explained.

Born in Walkerswood, St Ann, Pinnock said she also worked hard, breaking stones to help to take care of her children.

“Every morning mi gone wid mi hammer and mi picker,” she said.

When she saw the need for a school, she started classes in her home, along with her only daughter, Veronica.

After much struggle to find a location for the expanding institution, she eventually managed to get a former animal clinic which was converted into a school. The school remains at that location to date.

Cherita Brown, a community member who knew Pinnock from the 1970s, said she was a very good principal.

“She compel you to send the child to school, don’t watch the money. If you don’t have lunch, she will find lunch give them,” she said.

Brown said Pinnock is really blessed to have lived to her age, and, “she is still able to focus and remember things.”

Maybe the secret is in her favourite foods — one of her favourites is cheese trix and she also loves breadfruit, soup and stew chicken.

Kerr-Pinnock explained that Pinnock still believes she is able to do what she could years ago. As her caregiver, she exercises patience and sometimes allows her to dream.

“When she ready she say she a wash (do laundry). Mi leave her, but I have to do them over,” Kerr-Pinnock said.

Pinnock, a former Sunday school teacher and choir member, was also a domino lover and many remember some of the games she played.

TOMOROW: Aldin Pinnock shares her Memories of Jamaica