BEFORE his cellular phone could end its third ring, Donald Ellis was on it giving clear directions to his home in Ewarton, St Catherine, without skipping a beat.

The sharp hearing and clear speech of the 101-year-old could easily be mistaken for someone not a day older than 50.

His appearance, as he sat on his verandah, was also that of someone younger than his true age. But a jovial Ellis was quick to tackle three ‘scandal’ bags wrapped inside each other, a cardboard casing, and important documents to produce his birth certificate which confirmed his date of birth as April 27, 1912.

To everyone in his community, Ellis is simply known as ‘Shine’.

“When I used to work at a bakery in town (Kingston), the ‘chiney’ man seh ‘every Monday morning you come you shine eeh”, he said smiling. “I used to be in my flour bag pants. So from that the name just stick with me,” he said.

Ellis said that while many persons are today crying that the time is hard, this is really not the case.

“Time not hard now you know, it’s lazy the men them lazy, because you see years gone by when I was a little boy, nuh body nuh have on all them pretty blouse and these pants here, (it used to be) patch work pants … pure patch work clothes. And then you have flour bag pants,” he stated.

“Mi grow up in the dark days you know. I beg God every day not to bring back those times on the Earth, because there was starvation. A lot of hunger. And you never used to see anybody have on nice dress and nice shirt.”

Ellis said that he was just an ordinary labourer before going into Kingston to work as a baker.

“I used to cultivate. I was just an ordinary labourer. And I used to work in a bakery on Barry Street and George’s Lane in Kingston. I could bake,” he said.

“The time that I was born in, if a man did give me a piece of bread mi tell him thanks. Because education was not like it is now, we never think about education and them things there, we used to think ’bout something to eat and clothes to wear,” Ellis recalled.

He said that he went to school only two days in his life, and this was when he was eight years old.

“When you talk about time did hard, it was those days. We had to bruk pimento and all them things there to survive.”

Ellis said that his parents were also farmers.

“They used to do hard work like me,” he said. “But I always beg the Father not to bring back the times like when I was born you know, because nobody in those days had on good clothes like what you wearing now… pure patch clothes. Maybe it wasn’t happening everywhere in Jamaica, but I was born right here in Ewarton and that was the case.”

Ellis said that he grew up with both parents, along with his grandfather, grandmother and 10 brothers and sisters.

“I am the only one alive now — this sucker yah!” he laughed as he made reference to himself.

He said living until 101 years of age is the work of God himself.

“I am one man who believes in God,” Ellis said. “I don’t believe in them people who knock drum and rub up themselves with sweet oil. Every hair on my head is Anglican. The last time I went to church was my birthday last year.”

When asked if he was a Christian, Ellis laughed out loud before responding.

“Eeh eh! But mi is a Christian from mi a walk barefoot you know. And then crepe boot.” Ellis got married in the 1940s (he was unable to recall the exact year). However, he recalled that it was during the month of April. He said that his wife died ‘many, many’ years ago, but admitted to not remembering much about his marriage.

“Long time now she dead. Long, long time. But mi don’t have any remembrance when it come to that you know,” he said.

Ellis has three children. It is his daughter Yvonne who resides in the United States who is his main source of support. His other children live in Jamaica.

“In my days growing up as a little boy, my first work was driving a donkey cart carrying cane in the district. They planted a lot of cane, and then people get a little work at that time. So my little work was to drive the donkey cart. I was about 15. I used to get nine pence a day — three shillings and nine pence a week,” he recalled.

Laughingly he said that he didn’t give any of his earnings to his parents neither did he save. Instead, he would buy what he wanted — rum.

“My father was a good drinker you know, and I was a good drinker back then,” he laughed.

Linda Clarke, who has been his caretaker for five years, said that while Ellis can be miserable at times, he is nice to deal with.

“Sometime he will make up noise, but that is if him put down something and can’t find it,” Clarke said. “And when him find it him not telling you that him find it,’ she smiled. “And you see if he has anything? All three of us eating it.”

The third party being his neighbour, Kemesha Thomas, would cross the fence which separates their houses to check up on Ellis on a regular basis, while also helping in the preparation of his meals.

“Mi quiet now man,” Ellis chipped in laughing. “That was when mi was active. Because you never find a ‘water man’ who is not a miserable man,” he laughed again as he made reference to the days when he would drink white rum. “Worthy Park used to send down the rum from up there to Ewarton then they would ship it away to Kingston. So when the drum them come back we used to throw hot water in them and drink it. They used to call it ‘duppy batty’. When it drunk you, you see! When the sun hot and it stand up in a you, you see the devil just a drop out of all part of you body,” he laughed. “I used to sleep all out on the grass out in Ewarton, couldn’t reach mi yard!”

While Ellis is able to see, he said that it is not 100 per cent as he has to use eye drops regularly. However, his hearing and speech are still superb.

He is also not able to walk without the aid of a stick.

“If the Father help you to be 100 years old and you can sit down on a verandah, you must give him thanks and only remember the days when you were lively and used to be up and down,” he said. “Because you see, in my days when I was born, there never used to be any cars and trucks and bus running … pure walking and donkey. In Kingston it was pure tram car,” he recalled.

He noted that his first experience of a vehicle ride was hopping onto a truck.

“Some truck used to draw cane from Ewarton and I used to hop on to the trucks. That was my first ride on vehicle,” Ellis said.

But while he is sometimes alone at home, he admitted to never being lonely.

“A me name ‘Shine’ you know,” he said humorously. “The oldest man in Ewarton, born in this town, grow up in this town — used to live Kingston for awhile but migrate from there and come back here. So everybody know me. Everybody pass call ‘Shine’ how you do?’,” he said.