Every day that he wakes up, Vincentian centenarian Mitchinson “Mitchie” James thanks God for his sparing mercies. Last Sunday was no exception, as he celebrated his 107th birthday.
A steady stream of family members, friends and well-wishers filled James’s home on Midwood Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, as they, on Sunday, ensured that they were part of the extraordinary milestone celebration.
A priest was also on hand, offering prayers to the “birthday boy.”
“Lord, give him a thankful heart,” prayed St. Lucian the Rev. Kino Vitet, of the Church of St. Mark in Brooklyn. “Fill him with your peace — a peace that passeth all understanding – that all the angels will be with him, that he will hear the tender mercies of God.
“May this be a healing unto him,” added Rev. Vitet, anointing James with oil. “Take away from him all regrets.”
“Lord, let this day be a day for praise for you,” he continued. “So, let us be thankful. Let this day be a day of praise – that everybody is a joy of your goodness.”
Almira Rodgers, who was James’s neighbor in South Rivers, a popular village in the North Central Windward constituency in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said he remembered James when he was a police officer at home.
Rodgers, a Brooklyn resident, said she was particularly impressed by James’s dress.
“He was dressed up with a white tunic – always shine,” she told Caribbean Life.
“It was really a pleasure to have him around for another year, and to see that he’s still in good health and has all his faculties with him and continues to hold conversations with everyone, in spite of his age,” James’s youngest daughter, Hazel Morris, who takes care of her dad, also told Caribbean Life.
When asked how he feels celebrating his 107th birthday, James said: “Very good. I eat good; used to eat lots of fruits, breadfruit and river fish, pigtail and sweet potato.”
Last January, when Caribbean Life visited James, he said he wanted “to be around until God is ready for me. I’m happy God spares my life. I have no aches or pains, and I hope to be around for a few more years.”
Morris – who retired in 2021 as a patient accounts representative, from the nearby Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, after 32 years – said she was looking forward to her father’s 107th birthday.
Morris’s sister, Gail Davis, who resides in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, described her dad as “somewhat a celebrity of sorts.”
She told Caribbean Life that he is “bountifully blessed, wonderfully made, highly favored and honored to be amongst a specialized group of human beings called centenarians.”
James, who was born on Jan. 26, 1918, is the son and last child of the late Weston and Adina James in South Rivers.
As a boy, he said he grew up in a “relatively poor and stringent environment”, crediting his sister, Eulyn, for his upbringing after his mother’s death, when he was only five months old.
James said the elementary South Rivers Methodist School in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, together with the Methodist Church and the community, provided “love, strength and hope” in shaping his character.
On Aug. 10, 1942, James said he enlisted in the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF), with the number 29. He said he was one of six young men in training at the time.
James said the force had a complement of 59 policemen, led by British Police Chief Jenkins.
James said he served the RSVGPF for 23 years, reaching the rank of sergeant.
He said the high point of his career was working in all police stations in St. Vincent and the Grenadines but one, Stubbs, in South Windward.
He said his father went to the Great Beyond in his 90s, and that most of his siblings – five brothers and two sisters – died in their 90s, as well.
As a boy growing up in South Rivers, James said he was very active in sports, particularly cricket. He was a middle-order batsman and leg-spin bowler.
After retiring from the force, James said he managed Sunset Blenders in capital Kingstown for five-plus years before joining the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade as a Price Control Inspector, working with, among others, former Prime Minister the late Sir James F. Mitchell.
In 1980, James migrated to Brooklyn and has been living in the same apartment in East Flatbush ever since.
He said he worked in security at Pace University in lower Manhattan for 10 years before hanging up his hat.
In the course of his life, he said he married twice: Both wives are dead.
He married Hyacinth Edna Nanton, who died in 1975, while he served in the RSVGPF. That union produced Angella, Gail and Hazel.
But Gail said the number of children her father “sired increased as he moved from one out-station to the next (as a police officer).” That is also typical of some, if not most, police officers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
James told Caribbean Life that he has 15 children. He did not identify all of them.
After migrating to the US, James said he married another compatriot, Millicent Williams.
In April 2020, the Friends of Sion Hill, Inc., a Brooklyn-based Vincentian community group, honored James with its Longevity Award.
In 2018, the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ex-Police Association, U.S.A., Inc. also honored James with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
James was presented with the award at the group’s Anniversary Celebration Gala and Awards Presentation, also at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center.
At the time, Hazel said: “I figure I’ll spend some time with dad and make his feel comfortable. This man is not going anywhere now.”
Pamela Ferrari-Easter, a former RSVGPF sergeant and current president of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ex-Police Association, U.S.A., Inc., was among members who visited James on Sunday.
“I am honored to celebrate his 107th birthday with him,” she said. “He’s the longest-living ex-police officer from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but I believe also from the Caribbean.”
