On a quiet Thursday in Kingston, Jamaica, 100-year-old Vera Green woke to mark a historic milestone few ever reach: her centennial birthday. Though a recent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) diagnosis has left her movement limited and breathing labored, the soft-spoken centenarian says she feels nothing but gratitude for the century of life she has lived.
“I can hardly catch my breath, so I mostly have to stay in one place, but I thank the Lord and I am quite satisfied,” Green shared in an interview with the Jamaica Observer during a home visit Thursday.
Born as one half of a pair of twins in the rural community of Stanmore, St Elizabeth, Green and her brother Vivian were the youngest children of their working-class parents. From an early age, she showed a sharp curiosity and love for learning, enrolling at St Albans Primary and Infant School with a clear dream: to become a teacher. That ambition was cut short, however, when crippling family financial hardship forced her to leave schooling after sixth grade to help support her household.
“I wasn’t backward in school; my head was very good and everything. I wanted to be a teacher, but my parents never had the means to support my studies,” Green reflected. “I made sure all my own children got an education, went to school, church, every opportunity, and they turned out well. If my parents had been able to help me pursue my goals, I know I would have achieved something great too.”
After leaving primary school, Green took on casual day labor for local families, and later supplemented her income with small-scale farming, she said. Her granddaughter Lisa, who now helps care for her, shared that Green’s resourcefulness extended far beyond standard work — for decades, she served as an uncertified community midwife, helping dozens of local women deliver their babies at a time when the nearest hospital, Black River Hospital, was miles away and inaccessible for many rural families.
“In the rural countryside back then, there weren’t formal career opportunities for women like her, so she took on whatever work she could do, from housekeeping to farm work that local community members hired her for,” Lisa explained. “What always stuck out was how she stepped up when people needed her. Any time a woman went into labor, people would come running for Vera, and she would go help deliver the baby — no questions asked.”
Today, Green lives with COPD and hypertension, which has slowed her movement considerably, but she retains her sharpness and daily devotional routine. Remarkably, she still reads her Bible every day without needing prescription glasses, recites scripture daily, and maintains a steady practice of prayer, Lisa added.
Even as Green embraces gratitude for reaching 100, she acknowledges that advanced age brings unignorable challenges. “When you get old, everything fades. You can’t take care of yourself the way you used to. If people don’t help me, if they don’t put what I need in my hand, I can’t get it for myself,” she said. “But still, I thank God, and I bless the people who take care of me.”
Members of Green’s church community, the Kencot Seventh-day Adventist Church, gathered to celebrate her milestone this week. Christopher Johnson, leader of the congregation’s Seniors Ministry, who hails from the same St Elizabeth community as Green, said the centenarian is a beloved member of the church, and currently the only member of the congregation to reach the 100-year mark.
“We are delighted to share this 100th birthday with her. It’s an extraordinary milestone,” Johnson said. “We have several other nonagenarian members, three women aged 97, 98 and 99, but Vera is our first centenarian. She is quiet but always active, incredibly warm and friendly to everyone she meets.”