Sis’ returns home for her 99th birthday

Feb 10, 2010 News

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– Anxiously awaits century

(By Mondale Smith)

Few can boast of attaining the age of 100 and Beryl Nichols, called ‘Sis’, of 5-6 Durban Street, Wortmanville, looks forward with great anticipation to that day.
The mother of seven, who has 27 grand children and the same amount of great grands as well as 62 great great grands and five great great great grands, marks her 99th birth anniversary today in good health and with family and friends.
Some have travelled from England and others from the USA, while others have come from every corner of Guyana.
As a prelude to this latest milestone, two days ago, the amiable woman who has a great sense of humour and can easily be called upon to take one down memory lane, put together all the ingredients and mixed her birthday cake batter the old-fashioned way. Her granddaughter Carol did the icing and remembers being told often times by ‘Sis’ that “he who knows the truth and does it not shall be beaten with many stripes…”
‘Sis’ Nichols resided in the USA for 29 years and has also spent time in the United Kingdom with her grandchildren and while she says those countries are nice, she insists that “Guyana is always home and I love Guyana and am glad to be back.”
Her health is said to be remarkably good, and while she has help at her every beck and call, she still prepares a meal if she so desires, from scratch.
With regards to her senses, the only problem is her hearing which comes and goes but other than that she “can’t complain of any other ailment and my riches abound in my family, children, grand children and all others. They all make me feel that my labour of love was not in vain.”
Brought up in a Christian home her values and respect for God remains intact and those virtues have been taught to her children and grandchildren – some of whom were raised by her hands.  Reflecting, ‘Sis’ said that she attended a private school then went on to the Ketley School before becoming a domestic for the more prominent in society and met her husband who worked at Bookers.
“Those people have all passed, but because of my attitude and commitment during my working years I  was always offered  other jobs without a worry and minus an application…thank God.” She credits her long life to being in constant contact with God and having a prayer relationship with him and said “I never smoked, nor drank nor partied and I proved that God answers prayers when I met my husband”. He was a good Christian man just like she asked God for and they stayed married until he died 38 years ago.
They were married on her birthday at the St Andrews Kirk and that union bore seven children of which four are still alive.
After years of returning to Guyana on vacations she returned permanently in December of 2009 and as usual she had an envelope (containing cash) for each of her grandchildren, great grands and their children too, and being a good accountant, she took into consideration the rising cost of living this time around.
Prior to this, she was being cared for by her son John Nichols in New York, before her grand daughter Patsy Jessamy took on the mantle of being her caregiver.
And during those years her life was one of storytelling of the “good old days” and “God’s Goodness” to her.  She is the eldest of five siblings and one of her sisters is a Nun in the USA.    She was also a girl guide and almost lost her life by electrocution and also got what she dubbed a ‘lining cold’ from walking in flood waters  almost to her shoulders, days after delivering her youngest daughter.
Reflecting on her youthful days and her faith in God she remembered that her first grand daughter was born prematurely and the doctors had given up on her but not ‘Sis’. “They said she was going to die and I took her out of the hospital and brought her home and cared and prayed for her and now she’s still alive at age 45 and living in the USA.
Her stories include those of being kind to animals. She spoke of her younger brother whose job it was to graze the family cows at Christianburg. He hated having to do that and so he often abused the cows but with loud laughter she said “one morning it looked like the cow waited for him and when he raised his hands to deliver the first blow the cow knocked him over.
“That was his lesson to be kind to animals and after that he never again hit any of the cows,” the woman said as she laughed heartily. That story has become a lesson to all her relatives and her grandson knows that all too well. He recalled the days that followed his mother’s migration to the UK in the 1960s leaving him behind with his other siblings and cousins with his grandmother.
“She often took us to do weekend grocery shopping at the Stabroek market and one time I stole 10 cents from her purse as we waited for the big bus to get home.  I don’t know how she realised that the money was missing and she searched me and found it and I was most embarrassed to the point of never stealing anymore because she drove the fear of God into me that day”.
The woman credits her longevity to always including God in her day-to-day dealings. She says she’s happy that all her relatives care for her and has expressed pleasure at now being in the care of her youngest daughter, 64-year-old Nelly, as opposed to being in a home.
Unlike the average senior citizen she says she never had any special diet but likes beef and chicken and also enjoyed using cow heel soup. ‘Sis’ the name she got from her ‘church family’ says if she had her life to live all over again she wouldn’t change a thing as she believes that “while we have our own plans we must remember to trust in God and lean not on our own understanding.”

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