Cricket-loving, piano-playing ‘Aunt Ivy' scores 100 not out!

Cricket-loving, piano-playing ‘Aunt Ivy’ scores 100 not out!

Nov 23, 2015 News

Centenarian Ivy Beril Maxwell (Aunt Ivy) is a Queen of sorts

Unity, supplication and good family time are keys to long life, and Ivy Beril Maxwell, a US based Guyanese, knows that all too well. An ardent cricket and boxing fan, ‘Aunt Ivy,’ celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday, and according to her family, it’s 100 years worth celebrating. Surely, the West Indies cricket team could do with the likes of her!
A grand family party is planned for next Saturday in New Jersey, where more than 100 of her relatives will gather to pay homage to the matriarch.
Born at Lot 103 Leopold Street on November 22, 1915 ‘Aunt Ivy Maxwell’ the now great-great-grandmother, grew up at Lot 47 Sunflower Street, Wismar, Linden, before spending a greater part of her life at Lot 58 Upper Robb Street, Bourda.
She now resides permanently in the USA, at 64-66 Grumman Avenue, Newark, New Jersey.
She outlived three of her seven children and migrated to the USA some 12 years ago but makes it her duty to come home as often as possible.
While in Guyana, ‘Aunt Ivy’ resided with her eldest granddaughter, Lorrel Brooks, who describes her as a wonderful soul who loves singing hymns and calypsos, while playing the piano and keyboard. “She is obsessed with crosswords and her hand writing is impeccable.”
Her eldest daughter, 72-year-old Ula Greene, describes her as, “a loveable and an unselfish mother.”
As a child, Ivy Beril Maxwell and her mother made and sold peppermint drops and other condiments. She was her mother’s only child, but is one of two children for her father, the late Egbert Seaton who was a cobbler.
Her only sibling, a younger brother, Seaton aged 89 is still alive and lives in Canada. She is grandmother of 17, great grandmother of 21 and she has one great-great-grand child.
Aunty Ivy started visiting the US in the late 1990s where most of her children and relatives reside. But, she still treasures memories of Guyana and talks about her fresh vegetables.
Speaking on the telephone she recalled the days Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret visited the then British Guiana, during the days of the De Soto cars and horse-drawn carts.
She keeps abreast with local politics and loves to read. She gets most of her news from the New York edition of the Kaieteur News.
A housewife after marriage in 1940, her husband, Samuel Maxwell was a shoe maker. He passed on in September 1999. “I’m not sewing clothes anymore; I hang up my gloves, I’m not washing clothes any more, meaning there is no more relations for me.”
She has no regrets about life and its ups and downs because she believes that, “Without the downs there is nothing to celebrate in the ups.”
An avid sports fan, she enjoys spending time with family members watching cricket and boxing. Her stories abound about cricket greats such as Clive Lloyd, Basil Butcher, Gary Sobers and Alvin Kallicharran. Her hearing is not as clear as it once was, and she uses a walker. For this birthday, she wants a wand and a crown, along with her birthday cake.

Still got the moves at 100!

“When I score a century I shall be a queen who has defied the odds and is proud to have been the matriarch of a successful family.”
A strict mother who abhors profanity, she sang in the choir at the St Phillips Anglican or whenever she was in Linden at the St Aidan’s Anglican Church.
Aside from old age she has no major illness, and like her mother, Aunt Ivy still lives by the belief which she has handed down to her children: “Humility, supplication and family unity.” She receives regular medical checks from her granddaughter, Alina Tyndall, who is a physician.
Her eldest daughter is a retired Admin Assistant. The younger daughter, daughter Lynette is a Nursing Assistant and her son was in the mining industry before migrating to the USA.
(By Mondale Smith)