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Woman pleads for help with deaf, blind 102-y-o grandma

Published:Saturday | January 30, 2021 | 12:14 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Myrtle Campbell, a 102-year-old resident of Spaldings, Clarendon, might have lost her sight and hearing but still remains fiery, according to her granddaughter and caregiver Anna Kay Rose. The 36-year-old Rose, who has lived with her grandmother since birt
Myrtle Campbell, a 102-year-old resident of Spaldings, Clarendon, might have lost her sight and hearing but still remains fiery, according to her granddaughter and caregiver Anna Kay Rose. The 36-year-old Rose, who has lived with her grandmother since birt, is grateful to her for many life lessons.

Anna Kay Rose has assumed full responsibility for taking care of her 102-year-old grandmother Myrtle Campbell for the past six years.

Campbell, who has three children, is now deaf and blind and lives in White Shop in Spaldings, Clarendon. One of her children is also blind, while the other two make ends meet by doing odd jobs.

Rose told The Gleaner that it has been a struggle taking care of the centenarian, especially since her sister, who used to monitor her grandmother’s payments under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), got married and moved out of the house.

“She was removed in December as they (PATH) said only the persons responsible for her (Campbell) can re-register her,” Rose pointed out, adding that her sister has not yet gone back to the offices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which administers the state welfare initiative.

“I really need help for my grandmother, as I have to get diapers, pay the bills and provide food, and I am not working. Sometimes my mother sends a change, but it is not enough,” she said.

Reflecting on some fond memories with her grandmother, Rose said that Campbell was a fiery woman who was big on rules and standards.

“In her heyday, she used to make castor oil, and she used to boil it every Saturday and I would pick up the bundle and beat it,” she recalled, adding that her grandmother warned that, if she slept with her husband during the process, the castor oil would turn into custard.

“When making the castor oil, you can’t sleep with your husband,” she reiterated.

Stickler for cleanliness

According to Rose, her grandmother did not stand for mediocrity and was a stickler for cleanliness.

She recalled that after pots used to prepare a meal were washed, Campbell would conduct an inspection by rubbing her hand on the outside of the pot and then on her clothes.

“You haffi scour the pot good ‘cause, if her clothes black up, ... you know how it guh,” Rose shared.

Fruit trees in the yard were also fiercely guarded by her grandmother, who didn’t miss a chance to remind them that they were for visitors.

Still, there are other memories where Campbell would put aside her prejudices to please her family. Although she wasn’t one to eat pork, Rose recalled, her grandmother would prepare hog foot for them, as long as they washed and scraped it before handing it to her.

With the many lessons she has learned from her grandmother, Rose says there is nothing she would not do for Campbell, and rues the problems she now faces in caring for the centenarian.

“She teach mi fi cook and to wash clothes and mi always remember her saying, if the inside a di pot clean and di outside dirty, the pot still dirty,” she shared.

Recalling her fondest memory growing up with her grandmother, Rose said it was those times when she made chocolate, but then she didn’t like the fact that she had to wait until Christmas to enjoy the tea.

If you would like to assist the family, contact Anna Kay Rose at 876-310-2697.

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