Happy 105th Birthday, Daisy Christian

(CNS): Daisy Christian made history Tuesday when she celebrated her 105th birthday, which relatives believe makes her not only the oldest person in the Cayman Islands today, but perhaps the oldest person ever in these islands. Her brother-in-law, Ballinger Christian, a fellow Cayman Bracker, was 104 when he passed away. Friends and family gathered at the Kirkconnell Community Care Centre in Stake Bay, where she now lives, with flowers and cake to celebrate a milestone that few reach.

Ms Daisy married twice – for 8 years to Claude Scott, who died of a brain tumour, and then to Morris Christian, who died in 1983 of cancer. She had no children but “raised half the children in Spot Bay” for several generations, friends said. According to KCCC Supervisor Frances Clyne, she is in fairly good health – a little heart problem but nothing that requires a lot of medication, and has good hearing and eye-sight, though her memory comes and goes.

Relatives said Ms Daisy went to church every day and loved singing, and remembered her lovely voice that echoed off the Bluff. She has always been sweet and gentle, peaceful and humble, though her grand-niece, Jewell Smalldon (right with Ms Daisy), said she could be fierce to protect family. Smalldon said that when she was 17, she worked for one family on the Brac that treated her very badly. Miss Daisy came down, gave the family a sharp piece of her mind and took her niece home. She also remembers when her grand-aunt came to visit her in Spotts Newlands when she was 90. She was very worried when Ms Daisy disappeared for a time while, as Smalldon later learned, she was hitching to East End and back to visit friends. “That’s what a thumb is for,” she said when she got back.

Though she has never liked turtle, Ms Daisy has thrived on a regular Caymanian diet, including lots of fish. “She is a great person,” said Smalldon.