MONTEGO BAY, St James – Ivy Christabel Carty celebrated a century of life amidst the warmth of family and friends at her Irwin residence in St James last Saturday.

Among those who turned out for the celebration were former Montego Bay Mayor Cecil Donaldson and long-time Jamaica Labour Party senator Arthur Williams. Former Dint Hill High School principal Gladston Carty and Trelawny resident magistrate Frank Williams were also present.

Despite her Alzheimer’s, the centurian, who is otherwise in relatively good health, was able to chat with her guests at the luncheon put on in her honour on Saturday.

The second of eight children born to her mother Ada Beaumont, Christabel was born at Linstead in St Catherine in 1905. The succeeding years saw her committing herself to her studies to become a teacher. It was while working as a principal with the Wilbury All-Age School in Clarendon that she met her husband George Dunstan Carty.

As the story goes, the road to Wilbury was in a deplorable condition and Christabel would write to the newspaper to complain. Her writing put pressure on the parish council. Carty, who had responsibility for the council’s Roads and Works Department at the time, visited the school to meet the women who was making his life difficult.

He was meeting his future wife.

They were married in 1947. The union produced two children: former media manager and agronomist Marjorie Stair nee Carty, and Fitz-George Carty, a chemical engineer. Her husband, who was also known as “Baboo”, died in 1971 but she never remarried.

“She would never (remarry). There was nobody like her Baboo. Nobody could replace her Baboo,” noted her daughter.

The years since her alzheimer’s have proven stressful for her family, who remember her as an active and caring human being in her younger years.

“At first I didn’t understand what was happening. I was just totally confused. In the early stages, she used to be very active. She would sometimes go up and down the house without sleep for 48 hours and then sometimes she was very low. It was very difficult to get her out of bed,” noted Stair, now 55, adding that there had been times when her mother would wander off. “She is calmer now. “The sort of concern with wandering away is much less. She doesn’t read anymore. She used to write a lot. She is not doing that anymore. But she still feeds herself and she can still walk around. You can sit and have a conversation with her, but those of us who know the facts know that they are kinda jumbled.”

They are consoled by the knowledge that she has lived a full life.

“Her most strong feature is she is extremely kind. When she was up and down, she was one who used to visit her friends who were shut-ins. She was always giving and when I say giving I don’t mean just giving things. For example, there were always children in our house. She used to help children with problems with learning. Lots of children, even if they didn’t live in our home, came. So at the end of their school life they were literate and numerate,” Stair said. “She had a sort of passion about life. She loved life and enjoyed her life.

She was a strong community person. Whatever community she lived in, she knew who was sick, who needed help. She was a person who loved people. It’s not a kissy-kissy, hold-up hold-up sort of love. She expressed it in a practical sort of way. She had a positive vision for everybody.”