Wonderful 101

At times over the years, I have expressed awe for various members of my family, from the lessons instilled in me by my late father, to the awesomeness of my mother raising so many kids on her own. My brothers and sisters all have families, careers, drive, ambitions and all sorts of other qualities that I admire.

And today, during the week of her 101st birthday, I’d like to shout out and celebrate the toughness and longevity of my grandmother.

Happy birthday, Mama!

Mama was the reason why I didn’t know an empty, unsupervised home until I started paying my own bills. She was effectively our third parent, especially after my mother and father didn’t work out. She was also the neighborhood’s parental figure. From the mid-to-late 1980s to the mid-2000s, she babysat for the neighborhood’s new parents so they could return to work. It left us with quite a bit of extended “family” to the point where now, 30 years on, the people that still live there remember her, as do their kids.

For the breadth of what a century of life looks like, here’s a partial list of the history my grandmother has been alive for.

- 17 US Presidents.

- 113 political assassinations (strangely enough, only one American).

- 1 Great Depression and 14 other major recessions.

- Jamaican independence (1962).

- The birth and death of Bob Marley (1945-1981), Marvin Gaye (1939-1984), Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), Isaac Hayes (1942-2008), Michael Jackson (1958-2009), Prince (1958-2016), Whitney Houston (1963-2012), Aaliyah (1979-2001), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Malcolm X (1925-1965), and many more.

- Commercial flight (1926).

- Spaceflight (1961).

- Man landing on the moon (1969).

- World War II (1939-1945), The Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam War (1955-1975), 2 Persian Gulf (1990-1991, 2003-2011) conflicts, the Afghanistan War (2009-present).

- The construction (1973), bombing (1994), fall (2001), and replacement of the World Trade Center (2013).

- The birth of Jazz, Rock, Soul, R&B and Hip-Hop.

- The birth, arrest, conviction, release, and death of Nelson Mandela.

- Two Black Supreme Court Justices (Clarence Thomas, Thurgood Marshall).

- Four female Supreme Court Justices (Sandra Day-O’Connor, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor).

- The entire Curse of the Bambino (1919-2004).

- EVERY New York Sports Championship.

- 7 grandchildren.

- 11 great-grandchildren.

- 1 great-great grandchild.

- The invention of the cell phone.

- The invention of the internet.

- The rise of social media.

- The First Black US President.

- And the Donald Trump fiasco.

I started this list when she turned 95 and maintained it yearly. She is a living record, a testament to history. The rings in our family tree start with her, and I’m so happy and proud she’s made another turn around the sun.

Happy birthday, Mama. Have a wonderful 101.