Ever since I was very young I have always enjoyed listening to the stories my father would tell about his life's experiences. When I decided on the option of doing a life history paper, it was without hesitation that I chose to write it on someone I knew would be just delighted to relate the story of his life and seeing it in print.

            My father, Roland Johnson was born on May 15, 1906 in a small country village in St. Catherine, Jamaica.  He was the first child of Phillip and Eppie Johnson.  Phillip was a small farmer who worked ten to fourteen hours per day.  Eppie worked long hours too, as a local dressmaker along with taking care of household chores and raising the children.  In spite of their hard work they were still very poor.

            Roland encountered his first major crisis when he was only eight months old.  He was told this story later in life, of a major earthquake that hit Jamaica in early 1907 while he was crawling in the yard.  His mother could see the look on his face as he rocked from side to side and she ran out to pick him up while the earth shook violently.  This earthquake was thought to be the worst that Jamaica had ever seen.  Many homes were lost and the whole city of Port Royal went under the ocean.  This city was considered a "wicked city," as it was the port city used by pirates called the "Buccaneers."  These pirates would intercept large ships at sea, steal the gold or whatever was valuable, and bring the loot back to Port Royal to be distributed and sold.  To this day the Jamaicans believe that God destroyed the city because He was displeased with the evil.  Roland's parents were very thankful that theirs and other families were spared.

            As a child Roland grew up in the days when very few people had cars.  Being very poor their chief mode of transportation was donkeys, horses and mules.  When he was about six years old he watched intently as his father prepared the donkey with padding and hampers for carrying a load to and from the field.  Before long he was able to prepare the donkey by climbing on a stool . His father was very pleased with his effort and gave him the job of preparing the donkey each morning before leaving for school.  This was the beginning of a life hard work and responsibilities that were too great for a child, but it seemed very normal to Roland and his family, as others in the community were doing the same thing.

            His father was very severe in his method of discipline and handed out punishment at the first sign of misbehavior.  His philosophy was that if you break the will of the oldest then the other children will fall in line.  Roland learned very early in life that he had to stay in line or suffer the consequences.  The teachers at his school were no less severe and would often spank the children for simple mistakes or for not understanding what was being taught.  Roland became increasingly disenchanted with school and finally gave up at age fourteen.  His father who always insisted that he should stay in school did not persuade him to return but found lots of work for him to do in the field.  At this stage of his life there were four brothers and two sisters added to the family.  We can now see why his father desperately needed help.

            At the age of eighteen, Roland's father decided to move the family to another parish: Clarendon.  His father's brother had no children and a thriving sugar business so they moved on to his farm where they helped with growing and harvesting sugar cane.  The sugar mill was man-made and they used the mules to run the contraption that squeezed juice from the sugar cane.  They would then place the juice into large copper boilers and cooked it until it became sugar.  The sugar was sold in the markets or exchanged for other staple items.  It is clear that Roland did not have much time for the usual childhood games or the freedom to play.  He became a man, long before other kids are ready for high school.

            In 1927, when he turned twenty-one his family moved to another house in the same town.  This house was just a few doors from the home of Joseph and Maud Campbell.  The two families became very close friends and before long Roland had his eyes on their oldest daughter Julia.  She was only fourteen years old at the time but he told his friends that she would be his wife one day.  Seven years later in 1934, he married Julia Campbell.  Their first son Lascelle was born that year also.  Julia's family was fairly wealthy and her mother was upset that she would marry someone so poor.  Her father also wondered how they would make it without any money to start out, but he was impressed with Roland's drive and ambition.  He felt that with love and hard work they would do okay.

            The years that followed brought some lean times as they had three children in as many years.  Violet was born in June of 1935, Carmen in June of 1936.  Roland's only source of income came from what he could grow on his small plot of land.  By 1938 when their fourth child Donald was born Roland was working long days in the field and worked as a barber at nights and on the weekends to supplement his income.  At this point, Roland mentioned how proud he was of his wife because she adapted so well to this new lifestyle, being so content to accept whatever he could afford and she never complained.  A major crisis came in 1939, when Donald caught pneumonia and died within a few days.  Antibiotics were not available in those days and he did not respond to the other measures tried by the doctor.  This grieving period was long and stressful but with time they were able to go on with their lives.

            During these early years Jamaica was a British Colony and was directly affected by the political and economic climate in England.  In 1939, the news of the Germans bombing England brought a great deal of anxiety to the people of Jamaica.  Shortly after this event the British Government sent officials to recruit young men to be trained for the armed services in England.  There was a base set up on the south port in Jamaica to train the men who were drafted.  After this training they would be shipped off to England.  The war brought severe shortages to both Jamaica and England.  Families had to survive on what they could produce themselves.  In 1940, Roland & Julia's fifth child Jean was born and in 1942 another girl Sylvia came into the family.

            The United States, under President Franklin Roosevelt, became a close ally with the British and Jamaica became a benefactor of some of the help that the British received.  Thousands of Jamaicans got jobs to work as migrant farmers in the U.S.  Roland was working at the base where hundreds of Jamaicans were being trained when he received a work permit card to go to America in 1943.  He came to the United States and worked in Batavia, New York, picking apples and other fruits from May to November of that year.  The following year he received another work permit to return to America and worked this time in Connecticut and Florida.

            This time around he felt homesick and lonely so he stayed only four months.  He believes the reason he was so homesick this trip was because he had his first encounter with racial prejudice.  A few of the men from the farm camp asked him if he wanted to go into town and he was happy to go along, since they needed to buy a few items.  Of course, being from Jamaica they had no idea that they would not be permitted to go to a "white" store.  As soon as they got into the store the owner came up to them and chased them out in the same manner as that you would chase a bunch of wild animals.  The man told them, "Get out of here and go to monkey jungle."  They were all very discouraged by this episode and did not venture out from the campsite anymore.  Being in America was suddenly beginning to lose its appeal and Roland decided to return home sooner than originally planned.  Although, he was very grateful for the money he earned here he vowed he would never return.

            I, Kathleen, daughter number six, was born in 1945, the year that my dad returned.  With the money earned in America, he was able to buy a bigger house, but with that came added responsibilities: bigger mortgage along with having still more mouths to feed and clothing to buy.  Daughters number six and seven; Merlyn and Lola were born in 1947 and 1949, respectively.  In 1951 another girl, Rose was born and Mother became very ill.  The way Dad described it she was suffering from exhaustion so he took her to another town to stay with one of her sisters who was a district midwife.  Fortunately for him the oldest girl was still at home so she took care of the other children while Mother and new baby were away for about three months.

            While Mother was away there was a terrible hurricane that destroyed all the crops, some of the animals, and took part of the roof off the house.  Dad then went from room to room bringing all the children out from their wet beds.  He took us all to the living room which was the only room that was not leaking.  He remembers praying over the children, who were all huddled together under blankets.  As a six-year-old child at that time, I can remember feeling very scared, yet very secure because my father was praying the entire night.  When he looked out the following morning and saw the devastation he just thanked God that his family was alive.  There was still cause for concern as it took a few days to find out that Mother, the new baby, and other members of the family were also safe.  For a short while after the storm there was lots of food because of all the fruits and vegetables that were uprooted and had to be used right away.  Once this was over then we had to go to canned foods and whatever else was available.

            Dad was building another house at this time, but he ran out of money before it was finished so there was no place to move the family to.  After things got dried out a little, he managed to get the house repaired so his family could continue living in it.  The fact that he could not afford insurance meant that all the repairs had to be completed out of his pocket.  He also could not get a loan from the bank because he had no collateral, so he could not finish the other house. Besides all these difficulties the oldest boy was attending a boarding school in the city.  High Schools in Jamaica are not free unless the student gets a scholarship.

            Dad felt like this was the first time he felt deep despair and was depressed for a while.  He felt this was the worst time of his life.  From the stories he has related before this did not seem any worse to me, so I asked why this stage of his life seemed so much more unbearable when he had been through so many hardships before.  He replied, "Mother was not there and I had no one to share my thoughts with."  Mother was feeling better at this point and returned home soon after.  Later that year his sister-in-law saw the plight he was in and lent him some money.  One of his close friends also lent him some and he was able to finish the house.

            A big break came for him when he was able to rent the second house to the government to be used as a Post Office.  With the extra income he was able to send the second daughter off to commercial school.  Daughter number nine, Doreene, was born in 1952, number ten, Winsome, in 1955, and number eleven, Pauline, in 1957.  Besides these twelve children, my parents adopted a girl whose mother died while her father was living in England.  There were also several foster children who shared their home at different intervals.  As one can see Dad loved children with a passion.

            In 1953 they bought a small grocery store, which kept Mother busy from morning until night, while Dad worked in the field.  Now two other girls were able to go off to high school and the oldest boy was in college.  They were determined to give the children more education than they had.  Things were finally beginning to go smoothly for the family when another big earthquake hit the island in 1959.  This earthquake destroyed many homes

including the one that was rented to the Postal Service.  The Post Office had to be moved to another location so he lost the income from that house.  While the family's house was being repaired, fire destroyed one section of the old house.  Instead of fixing that house to be rented again he had to finish fixing the family's house.  This brought a severe blow to the, already tight, finances.  As usual he picked up the pieces and went on.

            As the older children left school and found jobs, they helped with the younger ones.  With only the five younger ones at home it became increasingly harder for Mother to cope with the store so they decided to phase out the grocery business and started selling lumber and other building materials.  At the same time Dad was also having difficulty getting help with the farming so he decided to burn the sugar cane fields, since that business required the greatest amount of intense labor.  The lumber business and the farm kept him busy for many years until the youngest girl went off to high school.  In 1974, he turned over the business to one of his sons-in-law and kept himself busy with the citrus and coffee crops.

            With most of the children gone Dad and Mother felt a bit isolated, so they decided to move closer to the children who were in the city of Kingston.  They chose Linstead, a fairly large community about thirty miles from Kingston.  This was as close as Dad would get to a big city.  They rented a house on a beautiful citrus farm and enjoyed the leisure of being semi-retired.  Dad described this as the best of both worlds.  He could still work in the field without the responsibilities of the business and be close enough so the children could come often.  There was lots of room for the children and grandchildren and they enjoyed many wonderful years in peace and quiet between the many visits and reunions.

            This dream-like retirement setting came to a sudden halt when six gunmen went there one night.  They shot Dad while they were still outside, then they shot the locks off the front door and came in plundering and searching for valuables as they went from room to room.  They took all they could.  There was no telephone in that area so they had to wait until morning to report the incident to the police and take Dad to the hospital.  The doctors tried to remove the bullet but decided to leave it in when they saw how close it was to the spinal column.  Dad said he would have gone back to live in the same house, but Mother would never hear of it.  They packed up what was left of their belongings and went to live with a daughter in Kingston.  The wound healed over the bullet, which remains in his back to this day.  After a few months in the city he reluctantly gave in to Mother's wish to come to stay with my family in Evanston, Illinois.

            This was quite a big adjustment for them, as Dad claims there was nothing for him to do here.  Before winter came they moved to Miami where he could be free to work outdoors.  They enjoy coming here in the summer, even though Dad still agonizes that there is not enough for him to do here.  At age eighty-nine he still gets up every morning to work in his garden and when he runs out of space to plant he goes to friends and relatives, working four to seven hours per day.  His fifty nine year old daughter, Carmen, who has lived with them since they moved to Miami, has been having health problems so another daughter, Silvia who lived in Canada, has recently moved in to help out.  They are still physically able to take care of themselves but need help with transportation shopping and financial support.

            When I asked my father what he thought was the most positive thing that contributed to his successful aging, he said, without hesitation, "hard work and determination."  Besides that, he explained that he has a good wife who stood by him all these years and now the children are doing all they can to make him comfortable.  Above all, he said, "I learned to trust in God and not worry too much when things go wrong."  In 1994, the children planned a grand celebration for their sixtieth wedding anniversary.  It was held in Jamaica and there were a total of eighty-three family members including twenty nine grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren.  He describes that event as one of the happiest days of his life.

            I consider this to be a life history of successful aging.  Dad grew up in a culture that respects and values the judgment and wisdom of older people, so he actually looked forward to getting old himself.  Despite of his lack of education and money, he seemed to have always had a very high self-esteem.  With a high self esteem and positive attitude he put his best into everything he did.  His great faith in God gave him the morals to set high standards, not only for himself but for his family.  This faith also gives him a sense of security about the future.  I give him a great deal of credit raising 12 plus children and for his tenacity when so many things were going against him.  He could easily have given up in despair when he was drained financially and emotionally, but he was determined to work through each experience and bravely earned the respect of his family and his community.

            It is difficult to compare this stage of my life with my father's, since the circumstances we face are so different.  At age fifty, I have two children, ages 22 and 25.  One is still in college and the other working.  Dad, at this stage of his life, had twelve children in every age group.  His biggest struggle was to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.  The fact that I have the privilege of a higher education has helped me to have financial security and to be better equipped to handle the challenges of life.  Living in the United States may have a negative effect on the way that we age.  As Robert C. Atchley describes: there is an over supply of negative language about the elderly, that may be partly responsible for the prejudices against aging and the elderly.

            I have come to realize the truth in Atchley's statement: "Negative beliefs are more likely than positive beliefs to be inaccurate" (p. 392.)  I have selected to adopt my father's positive beliefs about aging and to ignore the stereotypes that are negative about older people.  I prefer to believe in the positives of aging, such as being capable, dependable, generous, and giving social support to others.  Because my beliefs are similar to those of my father, I can see myself having the same success with aging, just like my father.

            The interviews with my father were a very positive experience for both of us.  I usually spend more time on the phone with my mother and sisters, but with these interviews, we had many long talks, as I questioned him about some things I never thought of asking before.  He was happy to explain everything in detailed fashion.  He is now anxiously looking forward to his ninetieth birthday on May 15, when several family members and friends will be getting together to celebrate his incredible success at aging.