FAMILY and friends of St Mary resident Adassa Reddy are surprised that after all that she has been through she has lived to see 100 years.

Reddy’s son, Cecil, in recounting some of his mother’s struggles said that her life has served as proof to him that there really is a God.

“She pass through fire, she pass through water … she had some very rough times,” Cecil said.

One of the tough times he recalled was his mother walking on the main road coming from a shop one day during the 1980s, when building blocks fell off a truck hitting her on her leg, breaking it. He said that a chunk of her bone came out and she was hospitalised for over a month. As a result of the accident her right foot has been deformed.

“That was a very rough time because even when she started back walking we had to help her like a baby all over again, because she was afraid to walk,” Cecil said.

Another setback was in the 1990s when she lost her Albion Mountain, Port Maria home after it was gutted by fire. She lost all her earthly possessions. Reddy had gone to the market only to return home and find everything in ashes.

A third blow that hit the centenarian was a nervous breakdown, and the family had to nurse her back to good health.

“It took much, we used to feed her a lot of carrots, beetroot, crush the dandelion seed and used the dandelion root to boil tea, before she eventually come around. Now, to see her live to see 100 is really wonderful,” a smiling Cecil said from their Hunt’s Town home.

Today, Reddy proudly declares that she is an old, old woman.

Born in Treadways, St Catherine on March 3, 1915, Reddy attended Hopewell Pen All-Age in Highgate, St Mary and grew up in that community.

As a child growing up with her parents, one brother and one sister, Reddy enjoyed playing ball games at school. When she graduated she started doing domestic work and also worked as a labourer.

“I used to work my field and do little bush work,” Reddy told the Jamaica Observer last week. “Mi worked in Irish potato — used to weed grass from other persons’ Irish potato farm. Mi used to cut grass too. So I was a labourer but I had my own farm.

“As a child mi went to church and stayed at home with my godmother. Mi go to dance but mi never used to love it,” she said. “So mi never go too often, but I went to church regular.”

Reddy, also known as Mambie, married Elkanah Reddy in 1953. He has since died.

She gave birth to 13 children, four of whom have predeceased her.

The centenarian explained that she was 19 years old when she had her first child and that her husband played an active role in helping her to care for them. He fathered the last 12 of them.

In 1966 Reddy was baptised at the Mount Angus Baptist Church, and in 1977 switched her membership to Port Maria Baptist. Today, she is visited by her church members and given Holy Communion monthly, since she is no longer able to attend the temple.

“I remember that she was a very hard worker,” Cecil said. “She used to work on a property weeding grass and she used to carry bananas from the farm to a holding area and from the holding area a truck took it to the wharf,” the 69-year-old recalled. “She was paid by the number of bananas she carried.”

He said that Reddy would also iron clothes for others in an attempt to help her husband care for their 13 children, financially.

“Sometimes I wonder how she live to this age because of how she worked hard for us, as she always want to see to it that we grow right,” he said.

He recalled that his mom worked so hard, at home and in the field, that once a large bump started growing on her neck because of what he said was a strained vein after she carried large wash pans of wet clothing on her head from the river regularly.

He said that his mother would ensure that they always attended school and would collect the lunch money from their father from Friday evenings.

And Reddy played just about every role in her children’s lives.

“She used to be our barber, our tailor — because she used to make our shirts. Sometimes she would make us try it on about 100 times after she base it up, until she get it right,” Cecil said. “When she cutting our hair she always put our head in her lap and sometimes we get a heavy lick with the scissors when we not holding our heads good. She always wanted to know that we go to Sunday School. We never used to wear shoes to school but she always gives us the coconut oil and we would oil our feet and oil our face,” he said with a loud laugh. “We never used to rag in those days, we used to wet cloth and we would use it wipe off and gone to Sunday School.”

When the children returned from Sunday Schools, they would all wait in line to repeat the golden text to Reddy.

“We had to tell her where the golden text was taken from and we had to say, ‘I wash my hands this morning so very clean and white, I lend them out to Jesus to work for me’. We had to always tell her something when we come home. She used to want to know that we read properly, so as a result, at nights she always use my bigger sister who is now taking care of her to back us up. My sister was good in her school work and my mother couldn’t read so good, but she could help herself,” said Cecil, who now helps with the care of his mother along with his older sister, Deloris.

“In those days, parents never have the time to do those things, because when she came from work five o’clock she cook the pot and sometimes pot don’t ready until seven o’clock. She always use the ‘turn stick’ and if she say ‘spell your name’ and you can’t spell it we a get a lick.”

The turn stick was a stick made from bamboo for the purpose of administering discipline.

Whenever the lunch money was not enough Reddy would make dukonoos or what some know as ‘blue draws’ or ‘tie leaf’ and gave her children to take to school.

“I always had problems with it because I couldn’t reach school with it, because from I leave the house every minute I take it out and taste it, and taste it, until eventually I eat it before I reach school,” Cecil said.

The centenarian was also known for her tasty cooking, especially of cassava dumplings and pepperpot soup.

“When you bite her dumplings you hear ‘Felix’, they were tight,” her son said. “She would use the cassava head to make dumplings and she used to boil the pepperpot because in those days you never used to meat so much … a little piece of salt beef and nubadead (cocoa tree) leave and dasheen heart. She would put it on top of the pot and while the pot cooking she would take it out and chop it up and throw it in the pot and stir it in with the salt beef. It used to be very delicious. We miss those things.”

Despite working so hard to care for her family, Reddy found time to play with her children and would play ‘moon shine baby’ at nights with them, while also telling them ‘Anancy’ and ‘duppy’ stories, especially since she believed she had an encounter with a ghost when she was young. She was also very thoughtful when it came to her children.

“If it was one sweetie — mint ball in those days, she would put it in her frocktail and she would crack it and all of us would have to get a taste of it — all 13 of us,” Cecil recalled. “She was that type of mother.”

Of her nine living children, three live overseas, four in Port Maria and two with her. Today, the centenarian, who is now confined to a wheelchair and unable to hear clearly, has 46 grandchildren, 92 great grandchildren and 30 great great grandchildren.

“I am very thankful to her for what she has done for us,” Cecil said. “And to see that inspite of the struggles of life she has lived to see her 100 birthday.”