Granny and grandson bond as she turns 99
With the media reciting a seemingly endless litany of crime and violence in their daily headlines, it’s always nice to find a story that bucks the trend. In this case our report begins well back in the last century…in the village of Bermudian Landing.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Ninety-nine year old Gertrude Phillips still manages to get around with a helping hand from her fifteen-year-old grandson Mark. A few health problems have kept her mostly confined to the house, but despite Phillips’ physical handicaps, she remains a pillar of strength in her grandson’s life.
Gertrude Phillips, 99 Yr. Old
“Well, I give him good advice.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What do you tell your grandson?”
Gertrude Phillips
“To behave himself, take care of everything that is good, take care of his aunts, and so on.”
Step by step, both grandmother and grandson have managed to build their five-year-old relationship. Mark Phillips says he knows boys his age would rather be spending time playing with their friends than helping their grandmothers, but what he has learnt from Granny Gertrude is of great value.
Mark Phillips
“She always tell me to behave myself and stop hang out with the weed smokers out there. Stop walk about and stay home and do my work that they tell em to do.”
Phillips, who celebrated her ninety-ninth birthday on Sunday January sixth, says she does not know if she will live to be a hundred and seven years old like her great great great grandmother, but she believes certain decisions she’s made throughout the years have blessed her with longevity.
Gertrude Phillips
“I no have no secret. My secret is to like people, do things to people, help people and so on. I no hate nobody, everybody I take care of. If I know that you have bad ways and bad mind, I’ll keep away from you.”
Today, Phillips remembers the good old days and says even though her hands have withered, they’ve done much to help her live a productive life.
Gertrude Phillips
“Anything I want to do…I go fishing, I cut firewood, all those things I do. Everything that I could make something off of, or live off of without peace and without having to be under people and beg this, beg that, I no do those things.”
Phillips says times have changed and she misses the old Belize, when violent crime was the exception and not the rule.
Gertrude Phillips
“I love the olden times. People good with one another, they no fight, no quarrel, no murder and all those things that they do know. I disgusted about it.”
Phillips says she is happy to have been able to see the new year and intends to spend as much time as she can with her family. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Gertrude Phillips hopes to undergo surgery later this year to remove a cataract so she’ll be able to see her one hundredth birthday clearly.
