‘Oh, to be young again’

Clara Smith turns 100 on Thursday and her only wish is to be young again. 

Growing up in Town Hall Crescent area of West Bay with parents Clara and William Bush, Ms. Clara spent time cutting tops and assisting her family. 

“It feels bad to be old and I can’t get around to doing the things that I used to. When I was young, I loved to work and go in the bushes to cut tops to make thatch baskets,” said Mrs. Smith, who will celebrate her Aug. 14 birthday with family and friends.  

Raising seven children on her own with a husband at sea, Mrs. Clara did what she had to do to make a living for the family. Like most Caymanian women in those days, she made a living from collecting silver thatch to twist into rope. 

Unable to move around like she used to, Ms. Clara looks forward to having visitors by her bedside. 

“I like to see and talk to good people, it makes me feel good and special,” she said, smiling from all the attention. 

Remembering her working days of making the journey to Newlands to cut tops, she would bring the tops home, tie them together to dry and when plait them to make land baskets, which were used by Caymanians to carry goods. 

“Cayman was very poor growing up and people had to make do with what they had,” said Mrs. Smith. “I loved my husband Alford, I met him one day in the grass piece cutting tops … he was joking with me a lot and I liked that.” 

She said she missed him a lot because he always told her she “helped him good.” 

“We would sit together and twist strands to make rope,” she said. 

“Mama’s life was work and more work,” said daughter Camerita Gomez. “She never smoked, drank or went to parties … those days, most Caymanian ladies stayed home and raised children.”  

“The first time I saw a woman wearing pants was my mother,” recalls her 76-year-old son Hevard Smith. 

“It was a shame for women to wear pants those days,” added his 70-year-old sister Camerita.  

“Mama would wear the pants to grass piece to protect herself from the sun and burns from maiden plum,” said her son.  

“Her words to me throughout the years have been, I will live to see 100 and outlive all my children … that may happen too because she is not suffering from any major ailments,” he added.  

Both Camerita and Hevard said their mother was an extraordinary women to raise seven children without the help of a father, whom they saw every three years. “She also worked three jobs – Cayman Arms, Silver Sands and Royal Palms – and came home to do the chores,” added granddaughter Jackie Neil. 

According to the family, Mrs. Smith loved sitting under the breadfruit tree talking with other women in the community. She loved to cook, bake, cut tops and always paid her bills on time. Ms. Neil remembers her baking rolls to take to others in the community. 

“You went with a full basket but also came back with a full basket,” she said. 

After her husband died, Mrs. Smith traveled to New York City, where she lived for some years and found work like other West Bay women in a Catholic institution.