RETIRED educator, Gladys Alfreda Henry, 86, was hailed as a woman with unwavering Christian principles who lived an exemplary life of service.

Henry passed away on October 27 and a thanksgiving service celebrating her life was held at the Saxthorpe Methodist Church on November 16.

Tributes were paid to the works of the stalwart teacher by members of the Saxthorpe Methodist Church – where she has been a congregant since 1988, granddaughter Christina Smith and daughter, Charmaine Henry.

In offering tribute, the church’s choir sang Around Me When I Look and Smith did a solo rendition You Raised Me Up in Henry’s memory.

For Charmaine Henry, the time allotted to offer tribute to her mother would never have been enough to capture the essence of her mother’s 86 years of life.

She recalled her mother as being a legendary woman who made sure that her household operated with discipline through the guidance of Christian principles and utterances of hundreds of Jamaican proverbs.

“My dear brothers, sisters, friends, well-wishers, Mommy was above all a true teacher, whether in the classroom or at home. I know my mother and I know who my mother was behind the scenes. There was nothing artificial about my mother,” she said.

“In the car she drove. And by the way, when Gladys mash gas you don’t hold her back.

Mommy tried not to empower the enemy. You learnt that truth should be in the inward part. We learnt that character was more important above anything else. And when I say character, I talk above academic excellence. Mommy said to us, listen, beauty fades, circumstances change, opportunities pass, critics take unto themselves wings, but lasting thing is man’s character,” Henry recalled.

“I remember when I started working and I met upon real characters, and I did not know how to pretend that they were well to get along with. She taught me that when you entered the world with various characters to deal with, just go on like you no have no sense. She chose not to let the enemy know she knew their strategy. In certain situations, Mommy would say ‘It’s better to form fool to catch wise’.

She also highlighted some of the proverbs and the literary quotes that her mother used to instruct and empower her children.

She said she has a gallery of Jamaican Proverbs and extracts from Shakespeare which her mother used within the house during her childhood and adolescent years of life.

Some of the sayings Henry recollected that her often used were: ‘Goat look inna market woman face before him bite her load’, ‘ Duppy know who fi frighten’, ‘If yu fraid fi yeye, yu kyaa nyam fish head’, ‘Every saucy cow hold him bow tight’, ‘No gourd no bruk, nu coffee no throw weh’, ‘Do fi do mek Hell full’, ‘All donkey mouth white, yu don’t know which one nyam flour’, ‘Dog a sweat but long hair cover it’, ‘ Man han inna lion mouth, him tek time draw it out’, ‘Hog a man and pig a boy’ and ‘Tom drunk but Tom no fool’..

Charmaine Henry, now a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, says she has incorporated numerous of these proverbs and quotes in her lectures to students.

Gladys Henry was born in the Corporate Area and exchanged nuptials with Earl Henry in 1961. The couple stayed together until the time of her passing.

She has educated Jamaicans at the Jones Town Primary, Holy Childhood High School, The Jamaica Youth, Service and the Shortwood Teachers college before her retirement.

Gladys Henry is survived by her husband Earl and children, Charmaine, Dawn and Aggrey,

Henry’s remains were interred at the Meadowrest Memorial Gardens in St Catherine.