She is 57 years old. However, one would not be able to tell from simply looking at Rosalie Brown, Member Service Officer at the JN Bank, Portmore Pines, St Catherine.

The petite mother of four adult children, who is constantly smiling, looks at least 10 years younger; and, the secret to her youthful appearance is simple: “Pursue your happiness.”

“Treat life like a ladder: one foot up and then the other foot up, and you will reach where you want to go eventually,” the former teacher and Toastmaster advised in her usual precise and crisp diction, carefully and effortlessly pronouncing her ‘Ts’ and vowels. And, her mellow voice, fervour and philosophy invite her audience to listen even more keenly.

“There is no work that is downgrading. None! Therefore, if you get streets to sweep you should do the best job; and if you get toilets to clean, like I did, do the best that you can,” she continued with her list of life lessons.

For Rosalie, those words were not uttered lightly. They honestly describe the life she lived, spanning her childhood of poverty while growing up with her grandmother in rural St Ann, after her mother migrated to Kingston to eke out a better lifestyle for young Rosalie and her four siblings. And, it also speaks to the difficulties she faced for more than two decades in her common law relationship.

Life has been an ongoing struggle for Rosalie.

“I remember us going to school in our mash up boots,” she related, tripping into the vernacular to breathe life into her story. “We had to go home for lunch, which was sometimes just roast flour dumpling with sugar and water; but it never killed me, because I knew what I wanted,” she reflected.

She also recalled her grandmother’s wise words to her: “Be satisfied with what you have and never look at what the Joneses have, because you don’t know what they did to get it.”

Rosalie mused on the lessons she learned, and continues to teach them to her three adult sons and one daughter. In addition, there is her universal advice to women: “Maintain your independence.”

It was a lesson she said she learned from her challenging relationship, which she found difficult to walk away from because of her economic dependence on her partner, and her efforts to keep her family together.

However, when she found the courage to leave in her mid-40s, no job was too menial for the former pre-school teacher who, after nearly two decades of adapting to life as a homemaker, only wanted to survive.

She accepted a contractual job as an ancillary worker at the Norman Manley International Airport, and that was the beginning of shaping her own life, no matter how her children felt about it.

“My eldest son, who was living abroad, was carrying- on when he heard that I was working at the airport. He said: ‘How could you be doing that and you used to teach? You should have gone back to teaching,’” she recalled him scolding her.

“But, I responded that I needed to survive without a man; and whatever I needed to do, as long as it was honest and moral, I would do it,” she explained.

Rosalie worked at the airport for four years. Her breakthrough came when she learned about an opening at what was then the Jamaica National Building Society, Portmore Pines, for an office attendant and bearer. It was similar to her previous job at the airport, but there was one major difference — it was permanent and it could not have come at a better time.

“It happened about the same time I had made up my mind to leave my common law relationship,” she recounted. “And whether it was an attendant or cleaning the bathrooms, or whatever, I was in. The first thing I asked when I received the call was: ‘Is it permanent?’ Because that’s all I needed to know.”

“I wanted to be in a position to do me, and that’s what I did. And I am happy for it,” she stated.

At age 50, Rosalie was in her first permanent job and she was proud. And, all she could think about was what was on the horizon. She wanted to grow, and, therefore, she made the decision to go back to school, with support from her manager at the time, Canute Simpson.

She studied and sat the English Language examination at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level, and received a distinction for her effort. And, as her confidence grew, she pursued additional subjects, Office Procedures and Principles of Business, which she studied on her own. The following year, she took on the dreaded Mathematics and Principles of Accounts.

Her performance in all four subjects was outstanding, and after three years of working as the Office Attendant she was promoted to Member Service Officer, after applying for a vacant post.

“She’s a wonderful person, who is always smiling and willing to assist,” commented Beverley Holmes a member at JN Bank, Portmore Pines.

“She can be very firm in her ways, but always willing to assist and to go the extra mile when needed, especially for the customers and, in particular, the seniors,” added Chaneen Walker, her current operations supervisor at Portmore Pines.

“She’s most effective at the concierge,” Walker commented, “which flows smoothly when Rosalie is manning that area”.

Just a few years away from retirement, the JN Bank Member Service Officer is banking on creating more opportunities for herself. She hopes to operate her own preschool and return to her first love — teaching. However, for now she’s thankful and proud of her accomplishments.

“Jamaica National means the world to me,” Rosalie declared, repeating those words sotto voce. “I am proud to be a JN employee, because the Society afforded me the opportunity to further my education and placed me in a position where I could grow and be me.”