Former hawker toasted on 100th birthday

Doreen Boyce Worrell was the toast of the town on Sunday evening as friends and family joined in celebrating her 100th birthday.

It was a bash fitting for a queen as Worrell glowed in a stunning yellow gown and a matching hat adorned with diamantes. The auditorium at the National Union of Public Workers on Dalkeith Road, St. Michael was transformed with decorative balloons and flowers as people came out to sing and pay tribute to a woman who several characterized as a mother to many.

“She was giving to everyone. My mother take in the strays, my mother take in the homeless, my mother take in the hungry. It didn’t matter who you were, all of her nephews and nieces raised with my mum. My mum would give you her last. So that is why we are celebrating her and her legacy today on her 100th birthday,” the eldest of Worrell’s living children, Lolita, told Barbados TODAY.

Worrell, who is originally from Dunscombe, St. Thomas but moved to Black Rock, St Michael, had five daughters – Jean (deceased), Lolita, Lorna, Betty Jemmott and Val.

The devout Christian was industrious and her daughters said she was a strict but loving mother who would “move heaven and earth” for her children. This was demonstrated when her husband died and she was forced to raise the girls on her own.

She was a hawker and the proprietor of the former popular Liberty Bar on Black Rock Main Road opposite the old Black Rock Police Station.

Lolita sharing a few words with her mum.

The centenarian’s 92-year-old sister Carmen Campbell, who was present to celebrate the milestone, recalled the years of them travelling to plantations from Bayfield, St Philip up to St Lucy through Belleplaine, St Andrew at dawn to harvest produce so they could head to Bridgetown to sell.

“They would leave early in the morning to go and dig potatoes and yams and whatever and then go down to Cheapside Market to sell the things to take care of us. My mother worked very hard,” Lolita said.

One of Worrell’s adopted children, granddaughter Waveney Green, came close to tears as she vividly recalled her grandmother’s involvement in her life. She recounted how their bond strengthened over many conversations every Friday evening when she assisted Worrell’s preparations of her well-loved black pudding and souse, notably made the old fashioned way.

According to Green, Worrell was her lifeline. She was adamant that it was only because God placed Worrell in her life that she is the woman she is today. With this in mind, Green proudly flew in from the United States of America to host the event for her grandmother.

“Growing up, she was all I had. She made sure I was fed, that I was loved, that I didn’t want for anything. I can’t put into words what a wonderful person she is and I aim to emulate everything she was to people . . . . She was just everything that anybody could want or need – a friend, a mother, a sister, a wife,” she added.

After several tributes, including a beautiful musical rendition by Wayne Daisley of Skylark’s Wildflower, the proceedings were topped off with the cutting of Worrell’s 100th birthday cake. (KC)