AMANDA Spencer insists that if after spending 101 years on earth she is not ready and prepared for death, she would be at fault with her God.

“I would be at fault if I’m in this world so long and not prepared to go,” said Spencer, who will be 102 on September 20.

“I am quite happy to go whenever the Lord is ready. I always tell them in church that if you see me in church today and tonight you hear that I have passed on, don’t bother worry and say I die sudden because I have been dying long time,” she laughed. “I am quite happy to go. Whenever he calls me, I am ready,” she said.

Spencer was born in Roses Valley, St Elizabeth and lived there until she was 14 years old when she moved to Kingston to live with her sister.

She had six brothers and sisters, all of whom have ‘gone home’ before her.

Spencer attended Roses Valley Primary in St Elizabeth but said that after moving to Kingston, she never furthered her studies.

“From I come to Kingston I never go back to school,” she told the Jamaica Observer in an interview at her Harbour View home in Kingston last Thursday.

Instead, she found employment as a helper.

“In those days you could get domestic work anytime because all they paid you was three shilling per week or two shilling and six pence,” she laughed.

“Because my sister left me when I was 20 and went back to the country and said she not taking me back to the country so I must stay in town and find my way and so I did.”

This was when Spencer became a part of the Salvation Army family. She said that those were some of the best years of her life.

“I grew up with in the Salvation Army church,” she said. “Most of the time I lived with people from the Salvation Army and I was very happy. All my enjoyment was in the Salvation Army. The drum and the tambourine and the playing and going to church in the mornings, going back in the evenings to do a little work and so forth. I was so happy,” she said.

Her role in the Army was that of a comrade who would go out with other sisters in the evenings to have open air services. She was also a Sunday school teacher and participated in various clubs in the Army.

“Nothing to me like the dear, old Salvation Army,” she said.

Spencer recalled Kingston as a beautiful place back in her heyday.

“Kingston was beautiful because you could walk in the night without fear,” she said. “They used to have a thing called Cony Island — we used to have picnic and you could go there and stay there ’til any hours of the night and you could walk home, nobody trouble you,” she said. “One was on Slipe Road and one downtown. I was living downtown and sometimes I would go there or go to Liberty Hall, that was in Marcus Garvey days. Kingston was beautiful man. Nice and clean. I hate to remember the Kingston I once know compared to now,” she added.

Unlike many young girls in her time, Spencer said that she seldom went to dance, since she joined the Salvation Army as a youth and would rather be in church or open-air services most of the time.

In 1955, Spencer emigrated to England where she spent 16 years before returning home.

While in England, she worked with the London Underground Transport as a sought-after chef in the canteen.

“They thought I was a big chef but I never think so!” she smiled. “But because I introduce them to Jamaican food and so on, the people used to love it and I was the only coloured person in the canteen and then they call me ‘Sunshine’ and everybody wanted ‘Sunshine’ to get their breakfast and so on,” she said. “But I never think I was no big chef!”

Her years in England were also happy ones for her, she said.

Spencer got married in 1940 to Joslyn Spencer who was also in the Salvation Army. Eight years later they had their only child, Linbert.

“My son was born in the Salvation Army and is still in the Salvation Army in England right now,” Spencer said.

Today she has two grandsons and two great grandchildren, all residing in England.

Spencer’s husband died in 1989.

“My son visits me once per year. And I talk to him once per week — every Saturday he calls me,” she said.

Spencer speaks highly of her caregiver, Hazel Turner, who has been living with her for 27 years.

“I have a Christian caregiver. We wake up in the morning very early and have our devotion, prayer and sing and praise the Lord. She is with me all these years and we are so happy together here,” the centenarian said.

And while she speaks highly of her caregiver, Turner shares similar sentiments and describes ‘Auntie’ as an outstanding Christian.

“She is great,” Turner said. ‘She is lovable and understanding. She is down to earth. She not ‘choosey’ and she loves everybody the same,” she said. “She is an outstanding Christian.”

Spencer still walks around the house, still goes to church every Sunday at North Parade Salvation Army, still hears, and still sees pretty well.

“The hearing not so wonderful you know but I can still hear — everything deteriorate,” she said. “Mi sight deteriorate, the hearing deteriorate, down to my appetite deteriorate. Everything deteriorate. I used to be big and fat, but everything deteriorate.”

Spencer used one word when describing Jamaican politics.

“Rotten!” she said simply. “Because it is rotten!” she laughed. “Because in my days — Bustamante days and Norman Manley days — you didn’t have all these killings and all those things. And when we ready we go to the meetings and if Bustamante having a meeting over by Coronation Market, Manley would be having a meeting nearby at the parish church (old Wolmer’s) and we stop there at the PNP meeting and we sing with them and dance with them and we leave and go to ‘Busta’ meeting and we buck the PNP people them and sing and dance together,” she reminisced. “Now you can’t even wear you clothes. So that is why I say it rotten. It was beautiful back then!”