A beautiful spirit

Wishing Ms Daisy a happy 100th birthday is Lurley
Scott, brother Charles McLaughlin and Faith Tatum
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Thursday,  March 17, 2005

One hundred years young, Daisy Christian still looked pretty in pink as five generations of friends and family gathered on Cayman Brac Saturday, (12 March) to celebrate a whole century of a gentle and loving life. 

Ms Christian was 100 years old on Thursday 10 March, and in all those long years, it seems, she never once got angry with the flocks of children who were always drawn to her side.

Many of those present at her birthday bash at the Seamen and Veterans’ Centre on the Bluff, although not young themselves, remember the enormous affection they felt for “Aunt Deedee” as children.

Eighty-six year old Faith Tatum said she used to visit her aunt frequently. “She was always kind and loving, never cross, and a good Christian woman. I believe that’s why she has lived so long,” she said.

Daisy was one of twelve children, six from her father Robert McLaughlin’s first marriage to Daisy’s mother Adelina, and six from his second marriage to Elvy.

She married Claude Scott, a seaman like most Caymanians at that time, and used to accompany him on his sea voyages. They were together in the Mosquito Keys when the 1932 Storm hit Cayman Brac, and came home to find their house completely destroyed.

“She took everything in her stride,” said her great niece, Jewel Smalldon. “Everyone is always fussing about how times were hard in those days, but it didn’t worry Aunt Daisy.”

After eight years of happy marriage, Claude suffered a brain tumour and sadly passed away. She remarried Morris Christian, and endured more grief when he died twenty-three years ago.

Although she has no children of her own, Daisy helped raise many youngsters on the Brac, including some of her younger siblings, one of her nephews, George Walton, told Cayman Net News. 

Mr Walton described his mother, Celeste, who was one of Daisy’s sisters, as an outdoors person, who “wouldn’t think twice about going up to the Bluff and cutting down an ironwood tree with a machete.” Though very loving, Celeste was more emotional than her sister and “would put you in your place in a heartbeat.”

Daisy used to come to their house every day to look after Celeste’s nine children. She was, by contrast to her sister, very gentle and had a very high tolerance of children’s misbehaviour. Mr Walton described her as a quiet person who never shows any kind of anxiety. When they were children, his aunt offered them stability at home while his mother was out working. “Daisy never work, want, nor worry,” Celeste would tell them,

“Mother would spank us, but Aunt Deedee wouldn’t,” noted George’s brother, Fred. “She was very loving and kind, never fussy about anything. She paid much attention to us when my mother wasn’t around. We took to her more.”

Lurley Scott remembers eating Ms Christian’s delicious coconut sweets, or toe-toes, as a child. “She is a wonderful woman, very loving,” she said.

Ms. Smalldon, celebrating at the birthday party with her own children and grandchildren among the guests, also had fond childhood memories of her Great Aunt Daisy. 

“She never raised her voice. She was lovely, always kind and so humble. A beautiful spirit!”

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