‘Up and running’ - Lena Coley is the queen of the pack
Published:Sunday | February 9, 2020 | 12:00 AMTamara Bailey - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Litchfield, Manchester:
Just six years shy of becoming a centenarian, Lena Coley, who can only be described as a woman who shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, is the ‘up and running’ queen of her family, and the matriarch that holds the Coley empire together.
She could easily convince anyone that she is 60 years old, or even a 40-year-old living in the body of a 94-year-old woman.
Ambidextrous, resilient and the perfect example of a strong black woman, Coley said she does not fear hard work, and will continue to work until the day breath leaves her body.
Reason: even at the age of 94, she can still be seen at her farm planting and reaping a range of crops she sells to market vendors, or to the average man.
“That’s all I know – my field (farm). I went to school in my early years, but I didn’t really get any lesson, because I had a bad leg, and it prevented me from going out. I can’t read much, but I work hard…”
Coley said as soon as she got over her medical issue, she started working on a big farm in Grove Place in the parish.
“It was my aunt that brought me to the farm first, and I started out catching slug in the orange walk, until I start working all over the plantation. We plant peas, corn and everything. And while I was there, I had my first daughter – of seven children.”
When Coley’s position at the farm was made redundant, she and her late husband continued their own farms to sustain the family; efforts for which their first daughter, Daphne Walters, is more than grateful.
“My parents worked hard to ensure that we had what we needed. When we were going to school, and the money wasn’t there, Mama would go to the field, cook while there, and we would either go and meet her, or she would take it to us.”
Coley, who is one of the surviving eight, of the 10 children her parents had, said dancing quadrille and dinki mini at parties was a must in her heyday, but happily let go of that life once she became a born-again Christian.
“Me deh wid the Lord now; me finish with the world, over 40 years now. God has been good to me. Sometime me feel likkle pain, but me nuh put it pon me head, me feel good, man; me nuh feel like 94. God help me that me walk miles to me field with the machete and hoe, and do me planting and come back.”
DOMESTIC DUTIES
If left up to her, Coley would do all the household chores, but she beamingly told Family & Religion that her daughter, Daphne, does her cooking and other domestic duties.
“My daughter look after my breakfast in the morning. Sometimes me package it and head to the bush and me stay inna farm until evening. Sometimes I will get up and sweep the yard and feed me pig dem…”
With seven children, 31 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Coley is proud of her legacy, and boastfully shouts at the mention of the generations that came out of her, “All these are mine!”
“We have a family reunion on the 26th of December every year, and I look forward to it because I get to see everybody. It is a nice feeling, man. Where I live too, there is a lot of family around me, and they don’t leave me out. Daphne (daughter) bring me go everywhere with her”
With a wish that this woman of God will live to see many more years, her daughter and nephew are hoping to have her strength as the years progress.
“Mama is just awesome. She do everything, anything she finds to do, she will do it. I just want her to live to see 100, and over, and continue to bask in her legacy,” said Urah Coley-Paker.
“She is our up-and-running queen, the oldest woman in the community, and a hard worker. Even though praedial larceny is something she has to contend with so often, she is a fighter and she will not give up,” ended Michael Evans.