Centenarian Headley-Campbell thrives on healthy eating, raising chickens

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE SECOND person in her family to have achieved the century landmark, Keturah Headley-Campbell has set an example for generations in the family to follow by eating healthy foods and making a living off raising chickens.

Born in the community of Waterworks, Westmoreland in 1923, Headley-Campbell celebrated her 101st birthday surrounded by some of her children, grandchildren and friends on March 9.

She married Donald Campbell, who was a carpenter, in 1972 and, as the years passed, the union produced six children and was further extended to include 20 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

After 51 years of marriage, Headley-Campbell lost her husband. That was 24 years ago.

She remembers working as a domestic helper for a senior manager at the then West Indies Sugar Company (WISCO), now Pan Caribbean Sugar Company, which is headquartered in Frome, Westmoreland.

“I did a little sewing and then I started working with a man named Jasper Bucknor who worked at WISCO. I worked with him for about 43 years from when I was young until they left,” Headley-Campbell recalled in a Gleaner interview.

She then embarked on raising broiler chickens and supplying them to the domestic market, until her 92nd birthday nine years ago.

Now 101, The Gleaner understands that Headley-Campbell remains very active doing many chores, including her laundry and cooking, among other things.

“I took over the chicken business and my mother has been there with me to the point that she was able to pluck 10 chickens all by herself last year,” said Vincent Campbell, the fourth of six children for the Westmoreland centenarian.

Vincent, 64, who works as a poultry farmer, said his mother is now the second person in his family to reach and/or live past their 100th birthday.

“My grandmother Darcas Bernard made her transition months after celebrating her centenary, almost 32 years ago. And now my mother has lived past Grandma’s age,” said Campbell.

AMAZING EXPERIENCE

“This is really an amazing experience for our family, and we are trying our best to regulate what we eat to follow in their footsteps,” he explained.

Campbell said his mother is a strict woman who instilled critical social graces in him and his siblings and, when he compared those years and now, the observations have left him marvelling at how time has changed for the worse.

“Time has really changed because I had to say ‘Good morning’, and when I came home from school I had to say ‘Good evening., Mama. And I had to say ‘please’ when asking for something, and ‘thank you’ when I received it,” Vincent recounted.

Headley-Campbell’s children believe that her long and healthy life is a combination of several lifestyles, including her spiritual connection as a Christian and the meals she eats.

“Mama has lived this long because she eats common fowl and their eggs and agricultural produce that have no artificial fertiliser. That is what has kept her healthy and to have been living this long,” Campbell noted.

He added that, outside of joint pains and slight hearing issues, his mother is able to read without the help of reading glasses and she has a very sharp memory.

Community activist Abigail Malcolm, who joined the family to celebrate the centenary, says she has come to know Miss Kurty, the name by which she is popularly known in the community, as a nice and loving individual, whose home is always open to the members of the community.

“Miss Kurty is God-fearing and, although she doesn’t physically attend church as before, from her income, she religiously pays her tithes and offerings,” Malcolm said of the centenarian who is a member of the Waterworks Holiness Church in the parish.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com