Williams family celebrates matriarch's century
Published:Saturday | September 29, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Horace Fisher, Gleaner Writer
MAY PEN, Clarendon:
VICTORIA ELIZABETH Williams has a lot to be thankful for. At 100 years old, her only challenge is that of a slight hearing impairment.
According to her grandson, Clayton, who joined hundreds of members of the Williams clan recently at the Versailles Hotel in May Pen, Clarendon, to celebrate the centenarian's birthday, she is a force to be reckoned with.
Williams, a petite beauty with a radiant smile that could literally light up a dark night, uttered just a few words, but sang, danced, and cut her birthday cake with some of her children.
She married Edward Williams in 1939 and the union produced eight children. Her eldest child, Daphney Saltou, described her mother as the "best mother in the entire world". She said the Williams family was delighted to have celebrated her mother's 100 birthday.
"At 100 years old, my mother hasn't lost a single one of her marbles. As you can see, she is in perfect health, and I hope I inherited some of her longevity gene," said Saltou as she paid tribute to her mother during the ceremony.
Sylbert Williams said the matriarch is loving, caring, and kind, but also a disciplinarian, who stayed at home and took care of her family over the years.
"My mother is firstly a disciplinarian. She wouldn't spare the rod for any of us, but behind that, she is just a loving, kind, and caring mother. You know, in those days when we were young, love was more important than money to a child, and my mother has an overabundance of it - love," said Sylbert, one of the celebrant's three sons.