‘The years just pass on and I just take it easy’
Miss Heady celebrates 100 years of life and service
Published:Wednesday | January 21, 2026 | 12:07 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
If Henrietta Adina Williams, popularly known as ‘Miss Heady’, divulges her age to those who do not know her personally, the disclosure could be met with gasps of denial as her physical appearance belies the century she has scored so far.
Perhaps Jamaica’s newest centenarian, Miss Heady was regaled and fêted by family and friends on Sunday at a ceremony to celebrate her 100th birthday at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.
The senior citizen’s five children, great-grandchildren, and a host of family members led the enthusiastic well-wishers who heaped praises on their matriarch.
Admitting that she was a cricket fan, Miss Heady thanked God for enabling her to score a century – a milestone she says no other member of her family had achieved in recent memory.
Speaking with The Gleaner on Sunday, the animated centenarian recounted that when she fell ill with pneumonia at age 10, a doctor told her mother that she would not survive it.
“The doctor said, ‘Mrs Headlam, if she doesn’t die by the way, she is going to die tomorrow’, and here I am,” she said, signalling that 90 years have gone by since that time, and she is still going strong.
Miss Heady taught for several decades. Those who know her well indicate that she loved and cared for her students and ensured that they got the best instruction despite learning or other challenges they faced.
Loved by friends and family members, the centenarian says she also has an excellent relationship with everyone in her community in Portland as well as her church family.
TAKING IT EASY
Born on January 19, 1926, Miss Heady who became a widow in 1973, said, “The years just pass on and I just take it easy.”
A member of the Meadowvale Seventh-day Adventist Church off Red Hills Road in St Andrew, Miss Heady says she was not always a Seventh-day Adventist but was brought up in the Anglican Church. When she attended the Anglican Church, the devoted Christian said she sang in the choir, played the organ, and was also a lay preacher.
“When my grandmother died, my cousin Harry was the organist, and I was second to him. I learned to play the organ at home,” she revealed.
The Gleaner’s news team was treated to a rendition of John McNaughton’s Love at Home, which Miss Heady said was one of her favourite songs.
“All my children are Adventists now, but I brought them up in the Anglican Church,” Miss Heady said with a chuckle.
With strong vocals and an incredible memory, Miss Heady recited the poem, going through the paces, with her inflection changing to give deeper meaning to the poetic lines.
Paulette Williams, the eldest child and caregiver, says her mother does not have to be sick to pay the doctor a visit.
Noting that Professor Errol Morrison has been the family doctor for decades, Williams said despite assurances from him that she does not have to come in for regular check-ups, Miss Heady insists that she wants to visit her doctor to demonstrate her agility.
“There are times when Mama just wants to go and look for Dr Morrison … she wants to go and look for Dr Morrison because she wants to lie down in the thing and throw up her legs so he can see how agile she is,” Williams said, to a chorus of laughter from attendees.
Saluting Miss Heady, Dr Morrison says what she has given to her family and community is immeasurable. “Whilst I can’t wish for her the years of Methuselah, as the years go by, all I can say as the popular lyricist said, ‘one more year pon dem’.