Good manners and Tetley tea - Sylvaney Walker has the recipe for living to 100

For 100-year-old Sylvaney Walker, affectionately called 'Nana' by her family, the secret to a long life is simple: peace, discipline, good manners and three cups of Tetley tea every day.

"Love, peace, don't trouble nobody, manners to everybody and mi three cup a tea a day," said the Linstead, St Catherine, centenarian, who insists that she's actually 101.

"Mi 101, because mi did inna mi mother belly fi nine months already. So when mi born, mi done 101," Walker joked, her eyes sparkling as members of her family burst into laughter.

On Wednesday, balloons bobbed on the verandah while children raced through the yard as Walker, who was born on September 17, 1925, marked her centennial surrounded by four generations of descendants. The last surviving of four siblings, Walker grew up in Above Rocks, St Catherine. Her memories of childhood hunger are vivid, shaped by days when survival meant stretching a single pot of porridge or a scant serving of salted meat to feed the family.

"We were very poor. We born pon crocus bag, and we get one meal a day. Cornmeal porridge every morning, and when dinner time come, we get likkle piece a ham and saltfish," she recalled.

She remembered owning just two outfits, one for church and one for school, and another set for yard work. After leaving Lucky Valley School in Bog Walk in the parish, she worked in the fields, planting corn and peas, picking cocoa, and carting yam to market on her donkey.

In 1961, Walker and her husband migrated to England with just two shillings and six pence, a coin worth less than half a pound at the time, the equivalent of less than $100 today. It was barely enough to buy a loaf of bread back then.

"My first job was in the hospital laundry fi three pound an hour. From there mi go dining room, then kitchen, and mi save bit by bit fi mi family," she said.

She laboured for 21 years in hospital service before retiring and returning to Jamaica in 1999. Sadly, her husband died the same year they resettled. Still, she persevered.

"Mi fight and fight until mi buy mi land and build mi house. And here mi deh now wid mi whole family," she said with pride.

The family is extensive with four children, 17 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren and 30 great-great-grandchildren. When told the tally, Walker laughed and told THE STAR, "So mi a the queen."

Her daughter, 77-year-old Clairmore Edwards, said the milestone is a blessing she does not take for granted.

"I feel very blessed and proud to have my mother at this age. Not many can relate. And to know that I can help to take care of her is an amazing feeling," she said.

But in contrast to her life rules on manners, Walker opined that discipline has faded in today's world.

"Young people nah live the life them fi live. Discipline and manners gone. My mother said have manners to even the dog, and that bring mi through," she said. Despite using a walker and being unable to stand for long, Walker has no chronic illnesses. She swears her strength comes not only from tea, but from a lifetime diet.

"These young people depend on fast food and chicken. Rice and flour is not mine. What is mine is breadfruit and banana and yam; that's why I'm so strong. Saltfish, herring, mackerel, you name it. That's what grow we," she said. "If yuh treat yuhself good, boil yuh cornmeal porridge, keep yuh manners, yuh will turn 100."

Her years in England, however, brought harsh encounters with racism.

"White people never love we, them call we monkey. One man even lift up mi frock fi look tail, but mi foot deal wid him. Mi lash him till him lef mi alone," she recalled, chuckling.

"It better now, things change fi the better," she added.