Despite being frail in health amidst celebrations of her Platinum Jubilee at 96 years old, Queen Elizabeth II took time out to send a birthday card to centenarian Olive May “Nana” Bailey who left St Mary, Jamaica, for the United Kingdom in 1956.

“I am so pleased to know that you are celebrating your one hundredth birthday on 3rd June, 2022. I send my congratulations and best wishes to you on such a special occasion,” the greeting card from Britain’s longest-serving monarch read.

Olive May Bailey migrated to England, a member of the now-famous Windrush generation three years after Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953. Last week, as she prepared to celebrate her special milestone, The Queen’s Platinum Jubileee celebrations was also revving up in the north England city of Bradford, Yorkshire, that Bailey has called home for over six decades.

A day earlier Bradford’s premier newspaper, The Telegraph & Argus, hailed the centenarian as “a stalwart of Bradford’s West Indian community”, noting that it is possible she is the oldest among them, as it chronicled her arrival with her husband Stanley and their struggles in post-war Britain.

Stanley Bailey preceded her 11 years ago.

At a well-attended service at the Westgate Baptist Church, one of two events which were held to mark the event, Bailey’s eldest son Enos Thompson, who flew in from Jamaica for the occasion, described his mother’s 100th birthday as momentous and historic, “as she is the first to have reached the milestone in a very expansive family”.

He praised the family matriarch for her hard work and efforts in keeping the family together, although some were thousands of miles away in Jamaica.

Another of Bailey’s sons Harold Bailey who also paid tribute to the alert centenarian, spoke of how his mother, even now, was always praying that no danger would befall her children.

Among the many people who paid tribute to Olive Bailey on reaching her milestone was Teinique Griffiths, a 32-year-old mother of two young children who credited her and her husband Stanley for turning her life around.

“I was a bit of a rebellious child, and Nana was the only person I would not talk back to or show disrespect. My own mother Rose Lewars Davis was struggling to work and raise me as a single parent and it was Nana and Stanley who provided the help and guidance that I needed at that young age,” said Griffiths.

Several people praised Bailey for her unselfishness towards others and her willingness to always provide assistance for those around her who were in need.

Surrounded by eight of her nine children — the first of whom, Fitzgerald Thomas predeceased her a year ago — some of whom travelled from Jamaica and the United States, Bailey told guests at a banquet in her honour at the New Tyke Banquet Hall that she was “thankful to God for keeping me to see this day. I had no idea I would live to see this”, she said.

She spoke of how proud and pleased she was to have her children, and more than 30 grand, great-grand, and great-great-grandchildren as well as people who she has known for many years and others whom she did not know around to celebrate with her.

One remarkable aspect of Bailey’s life is that she is still able to read without the aid of glasses and do some cooking at times.

Born in the rural district of Mt Regale, St Mary, Bailey worked as a housekeeper while her husband, who had been in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the war, worked as a cook at a private boy’s school in Essex near London.

They moved to Bradford around 1960 when the textile industry was booming.

“Times were hard back then, with the weather and subtle racism being the main challenges,” she told the gathering, imploring them to “always show love and take care of your children even when they seem to be trending in the wrong direction”.

She had a special thanks for master of ceremonies at the banquet, Nigel Guy, the brother of Jamaican parliamentarian Dr Morais Guy, a family friend for many years.