MONTEGO BAY, St James — At 106 years old, Beryl Irvin of Glendevon, St James, has a lot to celebrate. On August 12, relatives and friends from Jamaica and abroad gathered to mark her birthday, telling stories of her life in both Jamaica and England. Ms Beryl herself had a lot to say.

“My mother died at 105 and my sister is still alive, she is 104,” she told the Jamaica Observer during a discussion on the issue of longevity.

Ms Beryl was seated in her living room on a new sofa set purchased by a granddaughter as part of her birthday celebrations. Her sister Inez Lawrence resides in the United States.

Born Beryl McGilvery in Somerton, St James, on August 12, 1919, she spent her formative years there, and reminisces about attending school and the community’s Baptist church.

She married Arthur Irving and had five children, three boys and two girls — Wesley, Veronica, Carol, Cado, and Lloyd Irving — plus a daughter Rita Lawson from another relationship. She has outlived Lloyd and Rita while two of the four who remain now live overseas.

Shortly after her marriage, she and her husband left Somerton and settled in Glendevon. Not long after, her husband went overseas, paving the way for her to eventually join him.

“I went to England in the 60s because my husband was there in the 50s. He first went and then he sent for me,” said Ms Beryl.

According to her, after he husband became ill she had to step up and take care of him and their children.

“I sew; I did a lot of things. I sew underpants for men. In those days, underpants when I make it, same how your trousers cut, it’s so we cut and make underpants,” Ms Beryl related with a laugh.

“After that now, different cutting of underpants come in, I bought the paper and cut it and make it and sell them,” she explained.

Then at the urging of a daughter-in-law she got into sewing curtains, sheets and spreads. The money she made went towards construction of the family home in Glendevon upon their return to Jamaica.

Back in the land of her birth, Ms Beryl continued with her entrepreneurial activity. She had a shop where she sold a variety of items, mostly food, to residents and other customers.

“You know chop-up — what we call chicken back — we sell that,” she told the Observer.

Her grandchildren excitedly reminisced with her and said it was the best.

Ms Beryl was thrilled to have the younger generation around her for her birthday.

“I just love my grandchildren them, I just love them,” she declared.

Asked for the secret to her longevity, she did her best to reply.

“I don’t know but I do the best of what I can afford to people…When I was in Jamaica here, in Somerton, where we did live, me and my husband, we farm ground. Sometimes people will come and say I don’t have anything for the children,” she explained.

“We have a little place called a buttery where we put the food and I would take it out and give them,” she added.

Her grandson Marvis Irving also weighed.

“She always said live good, praise God, eat good, stay far from trouble, gossip, mix up, problems, contention, overall, that is what she always said,” he said of the life lessons learned from Ms Beryl.

Also among those celebrating on August 12 was Ms Beryl’s son Wesley “Original Busha” Irving who proudly noted that the family has good genes.

“Mi a 75, lots of people say them no believe me, even doctor say him no believe me. I was born 1950, the first of April,” he said.

“I feel good man that she has passed her mother, my grandmother who go 105 and the sister that follow her at 104,” Wesley added.

Other family members are said to be still alive in their 90s.

Meanwhile Wesley has a 102-year-old uncle, from his father’s side, living in Maroon Town, St James.

Beryl Irving (fourth left), surrounded by her family members during an August 12 celebration of her 106th birthday.