‘A doctor don’t know me’ - 102-year-old blessed with health; still ties out his goat

One-hundred-and-two-years-old winston annon said that he has never visited a doctor in all his life. The georgia, st thomas resident, who occasionally ties out his goat, said "i don't [get] sick, that is it ... apart from a little fresh cold."

"God deh pon my side. In my entire life, I don't go to the doctor. A doctor don't know me. Not even dentist. All of my teeth, I pull dem myself. When dem a shake mi tie sash cord roun' dem, get mi salt water and pull out mi thirty-two. But I never know [that I would live to see a hundred years]. That is God work. After you put Him in front, you is okay," he said.

Provide for himself

Annon's story illustrated that the old man has spent most of his years working hard to provide for himself and later, his family.

And though he proposes to be a happy man, the tears that welled in his eyes as he remembered his industrious nature spoke louder than his bold declaration of happiness.

"Me is a happy man. Me sit down and can't do nothing, so mi just bend me mind to me condition ... . Me is happy. But when you usually up and down and now you just come sit down one place, it lick you brain, enuh. Mi can't do no more work again. Mi usually do farming and work with Public Works at Morant Bay, but mi can't go nuh further. Right now I don't have anywhere to farm and that is the problem, because if me sit down pon mi rump and exercise mi hand, I will still do little farming. The strength no good, but the mind is still there."

Sixty-five-year-old Virginia Annon, caretaker and one of three children of the centenarian, seconded her father's desires, sharing that he continuously speaks of getting back into farming.

When asked of his strength and ability, she said, "He still brush (weed) the yard. Him wash him clothes, and when I'm not here he cooks his food and eat. We have a goat and he carry him out and tie him sometimes. Every little thing that he can manage to do, he does."

Virginia admitted that though she didn't quite grow in the care of her father, Annon ensured that he visited on the weekends to take things for her and her cousins ,who were living in St Elizabeth with his mother.

Comparing those days to today, the centenarian said, "It nuh [only] different now, it ugly. I can't do anything now to help myself. God Himself support me, and the good Samaritans who will give we something to eat. But one thing in life I always say, be honest in everything you do and you will get through.

"I teach my children that, day and night. Be honest and work for your living. If you have a child, look about the child. Don't disown the child because one day, one day you going to reap back."