Rasta woman claims to be 141 YEARS OLD
For Hanover native Mama Lilly, since 1977 she has been dedicating herself to the pursuit of eternal life through both herbal healing and childbirth.
Though born in 1953, Mama Lilly claims to be 141 years old. At 24, she met her ‘Kingman’ who would later change her life, a Rastaman named Bungo Jack.
“He was a man of engineering, he used to work in Cornwall Regional Hospital. He would work and fix all those machines and so forth. So I meet him now and he start to spread the gospel of Rastafari and teach me about making roots and so forth.”
Making a home for themselves in Hanover, Mama Lilly said she and Bungo Jack united and was soon after joined by Joanne, her sister-wife.
“Mi and di ‘sister’ was friends before,” she began. “Me and she was so close together and then we said to ourselves, the only thing we want to accomplish more in the friendship is to have a man in our lives. And then there he comes in our lives. I was the first wife and then my sister Joanne come along and it wasn’t any problem. We slept together in the same bed, the three of us together with him in the middle and we at the two sides. We live with love.” The trio lived together until at least 2004 when their Kingman died.
“He was an excellent man. He would preach and teach us about the Bible, tell us everything about the prophet and he take us and show us the light of Rastafari. That’s why we stay strong,” she said of the ‘Ancient’.
Referring to her relation with ‘Mama Joanne’ she said there is no quarrel, and they even share the same clothes due to their slim builds.
“If there is any quarrel, you know sometimes the man act up and gwaan like seh him wah hold the man power. If there was any quarrel it would be with him, not with me and Mama Joanne. We don’t quarrel. We communicate together to see that the children dem is okay. We would share the same dress that go to clinic together, because if she pregnant this year, next year me get pregnant.”
Collectively the trio has 11 children together, comprising of Mama Lilly’s four biological children and Mama Joanne’s seven.
Referring to herself as a mother of the Earth, Mama Lilly said she treated all their offspring as her own, and even sheltered her Kingman’s children from previous relationships.
Unorthodox to many, she told THE WEEKEND STAR her motivation has always been her zest for life.
“I was searching about life over death. How can you get life when you don’t seek for life? The pages say the wages of sin is death and the gift of Him is eternal life, I must seek for eternal life. That gift that was given unto, the gift of life through eternity that God save me until this time so that I could be 141 years old.”
Proving to herself she was on the right path, the western Jamaica herbalist said she even cured herself of cancer which she was diagnosed with in 2002. She said a doctor at Cornwall Regional Hospital found a lump in her stomach and recommended surgery. But she took matters into her own hands.
“I asked him to give me him number and from mi step out of him office, me never step back in there for him to do the operation and I never do no operation.”
Claiming that people are born with cancer cells, Mama Lilly said an essential for a long life is using herbs to counteract stress inducers that ‘burn out the good cells’.
“So is to get the stress from inside. You have to replenish so that’s why Noni juice is good. It is good for cleansing your system, like rebuilding back the tissue that you may have longer life.”
Through her line of roots medicine, ‘Eternalife Herbals’, Mama Lilly claimed that she can combat high blood pressure, acne, diabetes, stomach aches, menstrual cramps, and aid in reproduction and blood cleaning.
“I am a healer through the powers of the Most High.
Just herbs and water. So no matter what is the problem you have, there is something in the herbs for you because the Most High said, ‘the leaves off the trees are healing of the nation’ so then we must attain ourselves to the herbs and the herbs will heal us.”
While her children have yet to adopt the unorthodox romantic arrangement, Mama Lilly told that anything else is unnatural.
“Learn this, no one man no deh fi no one woman because the man dem is sower of seeds. Is just respect due.”
“That gift that was given unto, the gift of life through eternity that God save me until this time so that I could be 141 years old.”