Mass Reggie’s just getting started at 100
Arthur Reginald Saunders has never allowed age to slow him down – and he’s not about to start now that he’s 100.
Affectionately called “Mass Reggie”, he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday party last Sunday.
The centenarian who lives with his grandniece, Neity Henderson, at her Coleyville Crescent in the Washington Gardens section of Kingston is still quite independent and looks much younger than he actually is.
“He does everything on his own, he takes the bus by himself to the supermarket and he plays the organ daily. He was the organist at the Bloxburgh Christian Church in rural St Andrew, where he lived most of his life,” said Granville Saunders.
He is the fifth of Mass Reggie’s six children – five boys and a girl.
Mass Reggie, who was born at Phillips Valley, in rural St Andrew on January 12, 1904, attended the community’s elementary school. On leaving school, he went to Kingston to learn carpentry, then returned to Bloxburgh to practise his trade and became an expert craftsman at making windows, jalousies and doors.
“I used to repair houses and build wooden structures, in those days there were no block-and-steel houses, and I could also make coffins,” he recalled. “When persons died they would say, ‘call Mass Reggie’.”
He married Isoline Marshall, from Hagley Gap, St Thomas, in December of 1932, then started a family. Mass Reggie recalls leaving Jamaica in 1944 to go to the United States for a year to work as a farm worker in Massachusetts’ tobacco fields.
On returning home he continued his carpentry until he and his wife migrated to England in the 1950s. From there, they worked to finance the education of their children, with his wife staying in the United Kingdom for five years and he for 10.
“While in England I worked in the Jenson Motors factory where they built the Austin motor car,” Mass Reggie said.
Isoline died in 1990. The widower, who regularly attends the Duke Street Christian United Church, is in fairly good health although he sometimes has asthma attacks. He attributes his long life to his fervent belief in Christianity.
“I have lived long because my God is very good to me. I try to love and obey him. I’ve tried to live peaceably with all men and so I’m beloved by most people,” Mass Reggie said.
