DESPITE her movements being hampered by a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) waking up to celebrate her 100th birthday on Thursday was enough for Vera Green to be grateful.

“I can hardly catch my breath, so I mostly have to stay one place, but I thank the Lord and I am quite satisfied.” An expressive Green told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday during a visit at her Kingston address.

Born in Stanmore, St Elizabeth, Green and her twin brother Vivian were the last children for their parents.

She began her education at the St Albans Primary and Infant School where she aspired to become a teacher.

This aspiration, however, was short-lived as she was forced to abandon her academic pursuits — after completing the sixth grade — to shoulder financial responsibilities, due to financial challenges experienced by her parents.

“I wasn’t backward in school; my head was very good and everything. I wanted to be a teacher, but my parents never tried with me. I send all my children to school, church, everywhere, and they came out good. If my parents had tried with me I would have done something good, come out to something good,” Green said.

“I read out sixth grade and everything. After I left primary school I did day’s work. Someone came to me and I do a little thing for them,” added Green as she pointed out that she also did some farming.

Green’s granddaughter Lisa shared stories she had heard about the centenarian who she described as industrious and resourceful.

“In the country they didn’t have any career or profession so she did like housekeeping and farming. People in the community would employ her to help with farming. Interestingly, she was a midwife without certification — she had taken on the role of home delivery, I use to see people come and call her when they [were ready] to have baby. The hospital was miles away, [with] the nearest one at the time being the Black River Hospital,” Lisa told the Observer.

“She still moves around, even though she now has to do so on a much slower basis because she recently developed COPD, so she has breathing issues along with being hypertensive. She still reads her Bible without wearing a glasses. She reads her Bible daily, recites her scriptures and pray,” added Lisa.

For Green, ageing has been a challenge despite here gratitude for seeing her 100th birthday.

“When you get old, everything is diluted. You can’t help yourself now or anything again. If they don’t help me, if they don’t put something in my hand or anything, I can’t get anything. But thank God, and the Lord bless them” she said.

In the meantime, Christopher Johnson, leader of the Seniors Ministry at the Kencot Seventh-day Adventist Church, told the Observer that he and Green hail from the same community in St Elizabeth but developed a relationship when she relocated to Kingston and became a member of the church.

“We are delighted to share this 100th birthday with her. It’s a milestone. She is the only member that we have right now who is 100 years old. We have about three other females, ages 97, 99, and 98. She is very quiet but active, very friendly and warm,” said Johnson.

Christopher Johnson, leader of the Seniors Ministry at the Kencot Seventh-day Adventist Church, gifts centenarian Vera Green a basket on her birthday. (Naphtali Junior)

Vera Green celebrating her 100th birthday at home in the Corporate Area on Thursday. Naphtali Junior