It’s been seven years since Rosalie Bailey beat cancer.
It’s also been 63 years since she lived through Hurricane Janet in 1955.
Yesterday, Bailey was treated like a queen as she celebrated her 102nd birthday surrounded by some of her five surviving children, 22 grandchildren, 24 great grandchildren, friends and members of the community at her Roxy Gap, Waterhall Land, Eagle Hall home.
“It feels good. I would have to say it is the grace of God that cause me to be where I am today,” she said.
Bailey, a former domestic servant, agricultural worker and bottle washer at H.T.C. Cheeseman in Moll’s Alley, The City, who was born in 1917, was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer at the age of 95. She beat it after undergoing a major operation.
“It did feel alright,” Bailey said when asked how she felt after surviving the cancer scare.
The centenarian, who spent a year living in Antigua, remembers returning home to avoid a hurricane which was threatening that Caribbean island. However, shortly after her return to the island, Barbados was devastated by Hurricane Janet in 1955. (HLE)
