A lifetime of commitment — The Denise Eldemire-Shearer story

When the Most Honourable Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer married Jamaica’s third prime minister the Most Honourable Hugh Shearer, she was already a giant in her own right.

The daughter of former Minister of Health, Dr Herbert Eldemire, the idea of serving others never seemed too far away.

Eldemire became a medical doctor like her father and by the time she caught the eye of the former prime minister, she had already embarked on significant work with one of the most vulnerable segments of Jamaican society, the aged.

In fact, Shearer, during his wedding reception at the Beverly Hills home of Mr and Mrs Arnold Foote, pointed out how fantastic a job the new Eldemire-Shearer had done as head of the National Council of the Aged.

Back in 2015, Minister of Education, Fayval Williams said Eldemire-Shearer’s story was “one of an unfailing commitment to the poor and most vulnerable in our society”.

She was right.

Since then, Eldemire-Shearer has continued to show an immense propensity for hard work on behalf the elderly.

She is Chairperson of the National Council for Senior Citizens, Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborative Centre on Ageing and the Elderly, and Chairperson of the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons.

It is said that modern society is judged on the way it treats its more vulnerable. If that is true, then Eldemire-Shearer is paving the way for Jamaica to be better than it was yesterday.

But Eldemire-Shearer’s impact isn’t just to be felt here on Jamaican soil.

As a researcher, her work on ageing, is respected the world over, with notable publications on society’s appreciation or lack thereof for the ageing, as well as even more taboo topics like sexual health and the mental health of the elderly.

Eldemire-Shearer, the widow of Hugh Shearer, still continues today, working through the University of the West Indies (UWI) as Professor of public health and ageing. As Director of the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre at UWI, she is moulding the minds of a new generation of Jamaicans, teaching them the value of caring for the elderly and helping them to understand those insights that have come from her research and advocacy.