KINGSTON, Jamaica – Those close to Lena Maude Walker describe the retired nurse as a spirited woman who brings joy to others through giving. It’s perhaps no surprise that she has been blessed with a long and healthy life.

A native of Brainerd in St Mary, Walker celebrated her 104th birthday with family and friends on Tuesday, a couple days after the actual milestone on Sunday.

“Lena has been a great mom, not only to her children, but to everybody who cross her path, she provides for us and the rest of the family, and whatever she has, she doesn’t think twice about sharing it with others,” Walker’s son, Dr Hugh Chin-Sinn, told Observer Online at the celebration ceremony held for her at the family’s residence in St Andrew.

Chin-Sinn said the family has been blessed to have been gifted his mother for such a long time.

“I consider it a blessing for us and for her,” he said.

For her part, Walker said she’s “feeling good and happy” to be able to celebrate another birthday.

Lena Walker, 104, said she’s “feeling good and happy” to be able to celebrate another birthday.

She was born Lena Maude McKie on September 22, 1920, the fifth of eight children to James Augustus McKie and wife Gertrude Albertine.

A nurse, Walker migrated to England in the early 1960s as part of the Windrush Generation. She spent decades in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States where she resided up until her return to Jamaica in 2022.

Walker’s late husband, Wilmot, passed away in the 1980s. She has four children – Hugh, Kathy, Joyce and Tony; and one living sibling, her younger brother Edwin, a retired investment banker who recently celebrated his 95th birthday.

104-year-old Lena Walker with family and friends at her birthday party in St Andrew on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.