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Florence Palmer-Roach of Malvern, St Elizabeth, is the parish's newest centenarian, and she believes that it is the grace of God that has kept her all these years.

Palmer-Roach, who reached the milestone on January 5, is jovial and humble, and gave birth to six children. She has outlived her husband Joseph Roach and two of her children Earline Plummer-Cole and Beverly Martin.

However, the blessing of long life is nothing new to Palmer-Roach, whose family seems to be generationally blessed with long life. Her mother, Henrietta Brown, and her sister Mavis Palmer-Campbell also passed 100 years. Palmer-Roach is also blessed with 16 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

"My mother departed at 106, and my sister at 101 [and three months]," Palmer-Roach said. When quizzed on whether she believes that she will live beyond her mother's milestone, she said "Well I have to ask the Lord to give me even one more year without suffering and pain."

Born in 1922, in the district of Roseberry in Malvern, Palmer-Roach said she spent many years working at the Bethlehem Moravian Teachers' College.

"When I went there first, I went down on my knees to clean the floor and after that I went to look after the students' bedroom and from the bedroom I went to the kitchen. I was the second cook in charge there," Palmer-Roach said. The centenarian shared that while she is still able to move around without the help of her walking stick, she is not prepared to carry out any further work on her knees.

As a member of the Bethlehem Moravian Church, she said she enjoyed reading her Bible, praying and worshipping God. While acknowledging that current levels of crime did not exist in her younger days, she remains optimistic that there is hope for a total transformation.

"You still have some good young people and you have some rebels. I have to leave them in the hands of the Lord so that they can change their bad ways," she added.

According to Dr Owen Roach, one of Palmer-Roach's children, his mother is a bundle of joy to be around and most of the children in the community would look to her for guidance and encouragement. He said his most memorable moments are the times that she had to scold him.

"Whipping me for something that I did wrong then telling me that she loves me, that was sweet. I am better for it today," Roach said. With his mother reaching 100, Roach, who now resides in Florida, is basking in the glory of witnessing another centenarian in the family.

"Having breakfast with my mother, now at 100, cannot be bought," said Roach. His sister Inez Gordon, a retired teacher, lauded her mother's kitchen skills.

"She was a good cook. As children we enjoyed her steamed pudding and roast beef," she said. Gordon recalled that their mother spent most of her time away from them, as her job was a live-in one.

"She would only come home two days per week, but our grandmother and our bigger siblings would care for us while she was away. As children, we would look forward to her mother coming home at night," she said.