WESTERN BUREAU — Edna Reid’s glee was more than noticeable. The 56-year-old woman was one of the more than 1,000 recipients of a certificate of ownership for land at Retirement, Phase 1 in St James last week.

“I’m proud. I thank God for it (the certificate of ownership for the land). I’m very grateful and I am glad,” she said.

So proud she was to own land for the first time in her life that Reid was indifferent to the absence of running water or proper roads in the six-year-old Operation Pride development.

For the moment, she is happy to buy water from the truck and to walk along the dirt paths that lead to the various households across the community.

“From I come up here come live (I’ve wanted land). You see, (my family members) have land in the country but ‘mother have, father have, blessed be the child that have his own’,” Reid, who is from Porter’s Mount in Eastern Westmoreland, said.

“So, I don’t fool ‘roun the other rest with it. I said (to myself), one day God will provide for me. And God did provide, as much as I am a sinner,” the elderly woman added.

But the road to securing a certificate of ownership for the plot of land on which she lives has, at times, been an uphill battle.

“The community grow fast. Everybody come in and dem nuh behave themselves. Dem want push you off but mi stand up fi my right,” she told the Observer.

She recalled one incident some years ago when she had to pointedly tell a woman that she would not be removed from her land.

“I have breadfruit, mango and sour sop and a lime tree and mi say woman, you fool… Yuh nah get yah so…” she said, smiling at the memory.

Reid has lived in Retirement with her common-law husband, Henry Young, 69, for the past 20 years.

They were the first to put down stakes in Retirement and he, too, has expressed happiness at Reid’s receipt of the certificate of ownership for the land on which they share a one-bedroom board house without amenities.

“Mi very pleased, very pleased. A we build de place. (It was) a log wood walk and we come here come build it,” Young, who said he and Reid have enjoyed a relationship since 1966, told the Observer.

Reid is one of nine children born to her parents but she herself has no children of her own.

For her then, the future of Retirement, which began as a squatter settlement, rests with others inside the community and their children.

She says the community is in good hands, adding that the old adage of ‘one hand washes the other’ had proved true.

“The community develop good… we proud,” she said. “Good friend and neighbours (helped to build my house). When fi dem time come fi dem get fi dem house, we go back and help dem same like how dem come and help we.”

Like Water and Housing Minister Donald Buchanan at the handing over ceremony in the parish last week, she encourages all who wish to secure land in the area to follow the proper channels.

“Dem a fi try dem best (to secure the land) and have manners and respect (for the procedures involved) and dem wi get through,” she said.

As for her, she has no proper kitchen or sanitary facilities but she is hopeful that she will acquire both soon.

She said she is “satisfied” with the plans of Dave Allen, chairman of the Retirement Development Trust, to build for her.

“Mi we try fi build mi little kitchen myself for me get much help already. Mi can’t depend on dem fi give me everything,” she added.

Meanwhile, Minister Buchanan told the recipients at the ceremony that he would see to the installation of the necessary infrastructure on the land.

“We are fully aware of our obligations to you to see that proper infrastructure is put in place,” he told the beneficiaries.

Among them he listed a sewage disposal system, the double surface dressing of the main roads in the area, adequate drainage, water supply and electricity.