CECELIA Ethleen Ramsay King called ‘Tanti’ of Mayor and Town Council Scheme, New Amsterdam remains at the wicket having scored 102 not out.
The centenarian from Berbice related that ‘the journey was not easy, sometimes up, sometimes down, but God always came through for me.’

Born on January 9, 1912, ‘Tanti’ as she is fondly called, says ‘I wash, I cook and I clean, and I enjoy it.’
The  petite woman, who is in good health apart from  a slight hearing impairment, said she is the fourth of nine  children, born to her father William Ramsay,  a balata bleeder and though she received her formal education at the Roman Catholic School in New Amsterdam, and later the Lightown Primary on the East Bank of Berbice, she was forced to terminate her schooling, in an effort to  assist her  younger siblings , who were left on their  own after the parents would have left for the farmlands.

In those days, there was no electricity, the only transportation available was the boats which would transport us from Lightown Village to Stanleytown Stelling and from there we walked to the New Amsterdam Market where the produce would be sold. If we did not get money to pay the boat we would form ourselves in groups and walk the twelve-mile trek to the town, where after selling the provision we would buy groceries, before returning home.’-‘Tanti’

Her mother Eliza David, who lived to age 87 years, worked on the breadfruit and cocoa cultivation plots, as she more often had to singlehandedly care for her children as “my father focused on his older children from a previous marriage, whose mother was dead”.
“My mother had sent me to live with a friend in New Amsterdam so that I could attend school, but a few months later, my father demanded that I returned home.
“In those days, there was no electricity, the only transportation available was the boats which would transport us from Lightown Village  to  Stanleytown Stelling and from there we walked to the New Amsterdam Market where the produce would be sold. If we did not get money to pay the boat we would form ourselves in groups and walk the twelve-mile trek to the town, where after selling the provision we would buy groceries, before returning home.”
Describing her life, Tanti said: “It was hard, but I survived. I did not have an easy life from my mother’s home to my husband’s house, as he was a lady’s man. My father had disapproved of the relationship, but my husband pursued me anyhow. My father held out that he was not in favour, nevertheless, we married in 1937, without his presence and blessing. My husband, Albert King, a boat builder, a joiner and a farmer, died leaving me with nothing just as my father had predicted.”
Following his death, the widow, being childless, singlehandedly cared for several nieces and nephews taking the position as a single parent, scrubbing floors and washing clothes for a shilling a month.
“I worked for seven persons, but when the money was counted at the end of the month it was not plenty, but I could have had the necessary essential items. Thank God I did not have to pay a rent or electricity bill. The money now is many times more, but you are limited in your buying.”
With a smile and a tilted head, she recalled attending the annual school sports, as a student of Lightown Primary, particularly,the parade from her hometown to Friends Village a few miles away.
“Being a nation under British rule, we would sing “Rule Britannia, Rule Britannia rule………..Britain would never, never fail… as we marched ahead, with the Union Jack [British National Flag] being proudly hoisted by available hands. There would be egg and spoon race, thread the needle race among others. Those were my favourites. After the sports we would have ginger beer and buns, before going home.”
Currently, Tanti was taken in by her Seventh Day Adventist sister after she suffered an accident at her home, and subsequently sustained fractures to her left and right ribs. Nevertheless, when left alone she washes her clothing and cooks for her adopted family.
“I like to do work. I don’t like to sit doing nothing. When they gone out, I does do my own washing. I can manage,” she mused.

( Jeune Bailey Van-Keric)