MIRAMAR, United States — One day before she celebrated her 100th birthday, Keturah Wright longed for a pack of cheese trix and a drink of kola champagne soda, obviously not worried about the many warnings about unhealthy things to avoid at her age.

On December 20, when the St Elizabeth-born centenarian reached the lofty milestone, there was Jamaican cuisine and plenty of snacks and drinks at her home in Miramar, South Florida.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions only seven persons were in attendance — her daughter Fay, granddaughters Meisha Smith-Coulter, Alison Smith and Jessica Smith, and great-grandchildren Emma and Ella.

Well-wishers stopped by to congratulate the lady who family and friends know as Grammie from the time she lived in Pedro Plains in south St Elizabeth. She moved in 1996 to live with her family in Miramar, which is highly populated by Jamaicans.

“I’m very excited about being 100. The most important thing is, I get to be with my family,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

For her special day the theme was red, her favourite colour. The five-tier buttercream cake had scarlet trimmings while Grammie had her fill of oxtail, chicken and rice and peas.”

“She enjoyed herself. She was in very high spirits,” said doting Alison Smith, an attorney who is blazing a trail as the first black president in the history of the 99-year-old Broward County Bar Association.

Smith-Coulter, a senior director and legal counsel for Spirit Airlines, described Grammie as a “massive influence on all of us”, adding: “She instilled a sense of value in all of us.”

Despite the typical “aches and pains” associated with advanced years her family says Grammie is in good physical stead, with her faculties sound for someone that age. She never tires of doing puzzles or playing a game of bingo.

One of 12 children, Grammie was born Keturah Lelmar and attended Pedro Plains Primary School. In 1947 she married Charles DeCordova Wright, a pastor who was the first Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth South Western, a position he held for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) from 1959 to 1972.

Wright died in 1977 while his wife was on staff at the Black River branch of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). They had two children — Jasmin, who died in an auto crash at age six, and Fay.

“Lord o’ mercy! He was so kind and giving. He was always giving to people,” is how Grammie remembers her husband.

She raised her surviving daughter in the eras that bridged independence from Britain in 1962 and post-colonial Jamaica. Her husband got involved in politics at a time when the country was heading into the homestretch for Independence, splitting his time between parliamentary duties in commerce and representing constituents in his native south St Elizabeth.

Charles DeCordova Wright was one of many JLP casualties in the 1972 election which that party lost in landslide fashion to the Michael Manley-led People’s National Party.

The Wrights maintained a strong presence in Black River society, with Grammie being one of the original NIS employees in the town. The scheme was instituted in 1964.

Her family has had a similar impact in Miramar. Alison Smith, 41, is a respected figure in South Florida legal circles who earned her law degree at age 22 from Nova SouthEastern University.

Prior to joining Spirit Airlines, Coulter-Smith was a lawyer for the United States Army, while their youngest sister Jessica, is a physician.

According to Coulter-Smith, “We are very committed to the Jamaican community here.”

The matriarch of the family, Grammie Wright last visited Jamaica 15 years ago. She enjoys life in South Florida, which has a large Jamaican and West Indian population.

On December 20 she strode to the proverbial wicket and took the ‘single’ that took her to her century. Grammie says she enjoyed most of her glorious innings.

“I feel good about getting to it, and we give God thanks. I’m so happy I could get to spend it with my family,” she repeated with characteristic gusto.