Aunty Claudia is a centenarian with an impeccable memory

Jan 24, 2010 News

Of recent I found myself interviewing a lineup of centenarians. Within the past month I’ve had the privilege of interviewing four. I must say that trying to talk to persons at that age is no easy task, since at 100 years old some may have already lost their sight, their hearing and memory.
However, to my delight once again I was given the task of interviewing yet another centenarian. Initially, when I was told of this assignment I was kind of hesitant about doing it until, I arrived at the Uncle Eddie’s Home where I met Mrs. Claudia Reynolds-Williams. It was like no other interview I have ever done.
Today ‘Aunty Claudia’ is celebrating her 100th birthday and at her age she can recall any event dating back to her childhood.
Born Claudia Reynolds on January 24, 1910 in Belladrum, West Coast Berbice, ‘Aunty Claudia’ said that she was the last of three children for her parents. Sitting very much upright in her wheel chair ‘Aunty Claudia’ opted to tell me her life story rather than me asking her questions.
She said that at the tender age of ten she and her siblings were sent to Georgetown to live with relatives. Her early years at school were done at the St. Phillip’s School.
Recalling some of her fondest moments as a child ‘Aunty Claudia’ recalled the first and last time she was given a whipping. As she would put it, she was flogged for the first time in her life for ‘giving a fowl a bath in a near-by trench’.
Recalling the event ‘Aunty Claudia’ said she was just 12 years old when she returned to Belladrum to spend some vacation.
“We playing around in the rice fields…It was three of us, after playing hide and seek for some time we got bored and we saw a fowl in the bushes sitting on some eggs so we decided to give the fowl a bath.”
“My cousin hold the top beak and I hold the bottom beak and we just kept putting the fowl under water every five seconds apart. It was only after my aunt saw us then we let the fowl go…but she said she would tell my father.”
As the day was coming to an end ‘Aunty Claudia’ said that she nervously waited for her father to come home. She recalled that later that day when her father arrived she got the finest flogging that any child would regret.
Shortly after that her father called her while he was sitting on their front step, placed her on his lap and told her that he loved her but what she did to the fowl was wrong.
“I know my father loved me and he told me that the same fowl we give a bath was the fowl that gave him all the other fowls that he reared to keep food on the table.”
As our conversation continued it dawned on me that ‘Aunty Claudia’ at no point made mention of her mother. So I decided to ask. She said it was only when she was 12 years of age that she saw her mother for the first time.

100-year-old Claudia Reynolds Williams

She recalled that throughout her childhood she had sought answers from her father as to the whereabouts of her mother. After being persistent ‘Aunty Claudia’ said that her father finally told her that her mother left their home when she was just a few months old since they could no longer see eye to eye on certain issues.
Despite not having her biological mother around ‘Aunty Claudia’ said she would not trade the upbringing she had from her aunt for any other. As she recollected on her other years ‘Aunty Claudia’ said that after her schooling she took up nursing as a profession.
That chapter of her life lasted for exactly one year and 11 months. “I quit that job after my father came to see me and he wasn’t pleased with my appearance…He said that I was looking like if any hard breeze blow I would fall so he told me that job was not for me.”
Aunty Claudia then moved on to greener pastures as she went to the mining town of Linden where she found employment. That too didn’t last for long as she said she was not prepared to let anyone make a fool of her.
“I am a woman of principles and you can’t make me sign onto an agreement and then you break that agreement. I am no fool”. Once that was over and done with ‘Aunty Claudia’ said she went back to her hometown where she met the love of her life. But that too didn’t end to well. The man who ‘Aunty Claudia’ was prepared to marry died two months before their wedding.
She said it was like no other feeling she has had in her life. “Our wedding date was set for December 26, 1928 and he died November 4, that same year,” ‘Aunty Claudia’ recalled.
She said that her intended husband was a locksmith and he somehow strained himself while attempting to lift a heavy metal door on his own. He was hospitalised briefly and died being treated.
It took ‘Aunty Claudia’ some twelve years before she strike up another relationship. Her second relationship too had its share of troubles as her plans to get married fell through. It was not until ‘Aunty Claudia’ was in her forty’s then she finally married one David Theophilus Williams.
After several years of bliss her husband died. As old age stepped in faster and faster, Aunty Claudia said she remained to herself, depending on no one. She tried as much as she could to make life easy for herself and children.
However, as life would have it ‘Aunty Claudia’ was forced to have one of her leg amputated. That was back in 2005 and ever since, moving around was a bit challenging.
Relatives decided that it would be better for ‘Aunty Claudia’ to be taken to a home. In 2006 ‘Aunty Claudia’ was left in the care of nurses at the Uncle Eddie’s Senior Citizens home.
Today as she celebrates her 100th birthday she said as she reflects on her years, it is truly God’s gift to her to live to this age, with most of her faculties in tact.
Her advice to persons is to always live in hope do not live in despair. Her secret to long life, is live by God’s commandment and always do what is right in the eyes of God.