Inez Moncrieffe made a century look good when she joined Cabinet Minster Osbourne Bodden for a dance at her home in Beach Bay, Bodden Town, on Thursday.
The centenarian was celebrating her 100th birthday with friends and family when she was visited by Bodden Town legislative members Anthony Eden, Wayne Panton and Alva Suckoo.
As fit as a fiddle and feeling no pain, Ms. Moncrieffe said she was thankful to be alive and gave God the blessings for her long life.
“I always tell people I am looking on the other side and I don’t know how many more years I have here,” she said with a smile.
“I find life now very boring. When I was younger, I had people who I could associate with and have conversations on the same level. We would just sit and talk and have fun. That did not happen much when I came to Cayman after leaving the United States,” she said. Ms. Moncrieffe left Jamaica, where she grew up, and worked in the U.S. for some time. She later moved to Cayman to live near her daughter.
Because of that, she said, she has lost a lot. “What you do not use you lose; I was not able to keep up to that level I was accustomed to” she adds.
“There is not much I can do these days beside take a nap and try to read. I make my own breakfast and keep myself tidy. The helper keeps the house and does most of the cooking.” She would still like to still be involved in the women’s fellowship, where she would meet with others to do sewing, crocheting and other handwork, and just talk to keep going.
Joining the Ancient Mystical Rosicrucian Order, (study of religion, art and science) sometime ago has helped to keep her spirit up by thinking of things that are good, and that helps, she said. “When I reached the level of degrees, I stopped and am no longer active.
She was never married but she has one daughter.
Her desire now is to sit, talk and have fun communicating with others. She loves to read and one day wants to donate her books to the library.
Background
Born in Jamaica, Ms. Moncrieffe grew up with seven siblings. After her father died unexpectedly, she said, her mother made do with the little they had.
“After my father died, our lives were turned upside down because he was the sole provider. I can remember when my father was dying, he asked my mother how she would manage and she told him God would provide, and God did provide and we survived. All of the children got a little profession that they could work.”
Her mother took them to church and in the morning before they went to school, she would have a little get together with them to say prayers and read a passage from the Bible.
“I grew up knowing that God came first in my life because of the way my mother grew us. I made my mistakes, but I always held God in the highest position and always looked to Him and tried to do what was right. I did things that were wrong, but I knew God forgives.”
Related Videos
