104 not out for Melita Archibald

According to her children, centenarian Melita Archibald is a kind-hearted woman who not only gave her best to children, but to needy persons in their community when they were growing up.

When THE STAR visited the elderly woman at her home in Vineyard Town, she was surrounded with love and smiles as she sat in her wheelchair surrounded by five of her nine children. Also present were three of her grandchildren, her daughter-in-law and her great-granddaughter Daniel Benjamin.

While holding Archibald's hand, Benjamin smiled brightly as she looked at the senior with loving eyes. She said that although she didn't grow up in Jamaica, she spent holidays with her great-grandmother and knows her to be "very loving".

Archibald, who celebrated her 104th birthday last Saturday, was born in 1920, gave birth to 11 children, two of whom are now deceased. She also has 30 grandchildren, at least three great-grandchildren and two great-great-granddaughters. The Hanover native said that she owes her longevity to God but her daughter, Elaine Archibald Craig, opined that her diet may have helped.

"I remember when she came to me, she was on three different medications for diabetes and two for hypertension, and when I start giving her these type of foods, the medication came down to one and the hypertension come down to one, so I changed her diet completely," she said.

Archibald, who is a breast cancer survivor of 20 years, also has to deal with arthritis. However, she is not severely affected by any of her ailments.

"Apart from the normal old age, she is doing very good, is just that because of the arthritis she can't move about as she normally would," said Elaine. Archibald is the lone survivor of her seven siblings. Her children range from 84 to 61 years old. They said that their mother was unlike any other.

"She is the best mother, she would give her life for her children, she would feed us and not eat," said Elaine. "She made sure we went to church we went to school and she mek sure her children are well taken care of."

Archibald's daughter, Therese Archibald Lawood, 66, told THE STAR that what she enjoyed most was her mother's leniency.

"I enjoyed that about her so we could get away with a lot of things with mama," Theresa said. Her brother Nigel added that he appreciated that his mother instilled Christian values in their household because it helped to shape him and his siblings.

"We use to play some Bible games ... up to this day I will lay down and think of it, how wonderful it was for my mom to grow us close to Christ in those days, and because of that, all of us are pretty much Christians now," Nigel said.

He added that growing up in George's Valley, Manchester, his mother was known as the one who was always willing to feed the community and give back to the less fortunate.

"Our house never short of food. So, when our neighbour would come, there's always food in our house. See when she cook, she would always say she has to cook a little extra in case someone come by. No one came to our home and leave hungry," Nigel said.

However, when they were younger, Theresa and Elaine admitted that they did not like that their mother gave away so much. But they now recognise that she knew best.

"We were kids, so we didn't know any better and I'm going to be transparent, we didn't like it because we think that we were not getting enough. But now that we have got bigger, we realise she was doing the best thing there was," Theresa said.