“Thanks be to God, I have no regret. My mother and father has 11 of us and I’m the only one alive; no sister, no brother and here I am. Thanks be to God,” repeated Susan Wynter, affectionately called “Aunt Sue”, at her 105th birthday celebration on Friday.

Though Aunt Sue has no children of her own, about a dozen loved ones from Jamaica, and as far as the United States and the United Kingdom, came in support of her birthday lunch at the Terra Nova All Suites Hotel.

The Waltham Park Road resident expressed how grateful she was to her nieces, grandnieces, cousins and friends for years for coming together and organising such a “surprising and eventful” afternoon. Her able-bodied tone drew the attention of other diners who joined in the applause, laughter and cheer.

“It is unexpected; I know nothing about it… thanks be to God…love you all and thanks again… I am overjoyed,” she said.

Aunt Sue has no doubt that there are persons who look out and cares for her deeply. She pointed to Violet McKella, who was distributing slices of her birthday cake, and said that she regards her as her daughter and how McKella sees to her needs. Wynter continued that her family communicates well with her, and the ones who are able to visit do so as much as they possibly can, but she did not forget her ‘very good tenant’ who treats her very well.

Born in the community of Gravel Hill, Clarendon, Wynter misses her relatives there and wishes to go back there, or close to there, but she has an attachment to her home in St Andrew, having lived outside of Gravel Hill since age 11.  She grew up in Kingston and St Andrew after her father passed away and her mother put her up for adoption.  

Grandniece Eva Samuels, who has resided in the UK since she was eight years old, agreed with 88-year-old cousin of Aunt Sue, Justice of the Peace Headley Forbes, that Aunt Sue has a sharp memory and cannot be fooled easily. Samuels has fond memories of Aunt Sue when she lived with her and her parents in the UK.

“When I was in Jamaica she was always known as a town woman ’cause she lived in town, and we used to dress up to go see Aunt Sue… it was a big thing then to go to town and see her. She was a town girl and everyone knew me as the country girl,” Samuels said amid smiles. She continued by sharing more about her Aunt Sue. “But Aunt Sue has always had a strong character … that strong, determined will is something you saw in her from she was very young. She’s always been there for all of us, she’s never had any children, but to be honest with you, she was the mother, the great aunt for all of us. She didn’t choose between any of her nieces and nephews; she treat us all the same,” she said.

According to Forbes, “one thing with her and all of her relatives, no matter how poor or rich they are, she treats them the same way. I remember I went down there one evening, [and] I couldn’t believe she was at 105 the way she held me tight. ‘cousin Headley’, she remembers well enu.”

Wynter shared with the Jamaica Observer that she got married in 1961 and her husband went to England and ‘sent for’ her. She also shared how she made her living. “I do domestic work, man! Wash, cook, clean, anything at all. I worked in homes with private people, in hotels, I was a chambermaid who worked in Ex Servicemen’s Club.” She said she worked there for 17 years after her friend got her the job. Following their retirement,  she and her husband returned to Jamaica, where he died later.

April 28, being her birthday, the 105-year-old returnee carried out her usual routine. “Hahoy!” a loud expression escaped from her lips. “You know what I had this morning? A little orange juice, half cup of tea, porridge, and I have egg. If I want a slice a bread I can mek it… first thing, I get a little tea and read my morning’s lesson and pray, and then I do whatever I can manage to do,” she said.

Besides her injured leg, trouble with high blood pressure, and faint hearing, Wynter said she’s bothered by nothing else. “I can’t eat and drink any and every thing and I have to be careful with everything… I’m quite conscious… I do a likkle cooking for myself… I’m active; is only the foot really. I can’t get to go around and do as I want to. Even if I want two Jamaican dumpling I can mek it. I take the spoon and knead the flour. I normally cook green banana; very good to eat, especially in the morning. I don’t peel it, I take off the top and bottom and boil it in the skin… I crochet. If yuh mind, I go all a piano class,” she shared amid laughter and her expression of how much she likes music.

“I can’t really bake again, I used to bake… but the fingers are kinda getting numb now and everything… I have nothing to regret and I can help myself. Thank God.” Wynter commented.

She went on to share what she would have maximised on if she were given the opportunity to do so. “The only thing I really missed (out on), I wasn’t lucky enough to get that amount of           service for our kind of a people, my church sister come for me and carry me, and that is St Andrew Parish Church in Half-Way-Tree, because I’m an Anglican… I was confirmed at St Luke’s in Cross Roads, married at St Luke’s, but I don’t able to attend St Luke’s,” she said.

Before concluding “that’s enough, I chat enough,” in the Sunday Observer interview, the centenarian said: “And you know sometimes I don’t mind not hearing everything, because if I had the chance to hear everything, perhaps it would put me back. But not hearing certain things doesn’t bother me. Otherwise, I’m alright… Thank God for it. And I have a wonderful appetite, so I have nothing to regret darling. I have to give the great God thanks,” she said as she continued about the changes she has seen in her earlier years, in comparison to now.  

“Everything has changed and the years are moving so fast — the years are like months and sometimes when you see a child and him tell yuh him age, yuh seh what? Him reach de su already? Is only the young generation I sorry for ’cause everything has been changed for them. And three quarter of them don’t want to work, don’t want to learn trade, more thanwdress up and sit up on the street side… They don’t want my advice because it’s too old -fashioned. Anything I know that is good and I know that they will listen, I will tell them,” she expressed.

Wynter has one explanation as to what has kept her going for 105 years. “The grace of God has kept me, I love each and everyone. I don’t tief, I don’t lie, I don’t do anything that the dear Lord wouldn’t want me to do, and I try to be kind to each and everyone,” she stated, adding that her family and those around her told her that they won’t be as lucky as her.

She imparts a few words of wisdom on her well-wishers and supporters: “Live with God. You have all things in this world to drag yu back, but don’t follow the wordly things, because everyday we see something new.”