and who celebrates her 99th birthday today, will be surrounded by hundreds of other relatives when they throw a huge party for her on Saturday.

Ora Tucker, who has 21 grandchildren, 57 great grandchildren and 24 great great grandchildren, is still an active member of "the church built by the slaves'', Cobb's Hill Methodist, where she sang in the choir until last year.

Looking far younger than her years and dressed in cheerfully bright colours with a handsome `peacock' brooch crowning the dramatic angle of her hat, Mrs.

Tucker told The Royal Gazette that she had no particular secret for her longevity. Many would probably agree, though, that her sharp sense of humour has carried her through good times and bad. Experiencing problems during the photo session at her Devonshire home, photographer Tony Cordeiro remarked that "this camera's going foolish''. Quick as a flash she retorted, "Well, what did you bring a foolish camera down here for?'' and, when she was asked about old `traditional' herb medicines, she observed that match-me-can leaves and vinegar were considered a good remedy for headaches, "but as for me, I take a Phensic! That works!'' And, when Mr. Cordeiro, an old friend of her son-in-law Dalzell Tucker, enquired jokingly "do you know this character?'', she immediately quipped "He has a character?'' Mrs. Tucker, who has never been in hospital for any illness, still enjoys her food. "I like my vegetables and, regarding this cereal business, I like All Bran which I mix with cream of wheat and I have that every day. I like fish better than meat and when my daughter was alive I loved our codfish breakfasts on a Sunday. I have never drunk alcohol.'' Mrs. Tucker, daughter of Rachel Smith and stone cutter Jonathan Jessie Smith ("Daddy'') was one of 16 children. Sadly, she lost her last child, Freda Ratteray, just a couple of months ago, less than two weeks after the death of another daughter Ismay Jones (mother of Sen. Linda Milligan-Whyte).

Agreeing that she has lived through many changes since she was born near Devil's Hole on Harrington Sound, Mrs. Tucker says she recalls her own mother would talk with Jessie Tucker who could still remember the days of slavery.

Mrs. Tucker celebrates birthday "My mother told me the story about when they used to chain them up to a stump and they'd walk around, dragging this stump with them. I used to listen to all of this! My mother was 86 when she died.'' Although things have changed very much for the better in most ways, Mrs.

Tucker says she is not too happy about the behaviour and attitude of many of today's children. "My father taught us that culture is the first thing. But no, they don't teach that today. They ought to be taught obedience. I have nephews and nieces who are teachers and I think teachers have a hard time with these children today.'' Stressing that she doesn't necessarily believe in the phrase `spare the rod and spoil the child', Mrs. Tucker feels it is quite possible to correct a child without resorting to corporal punishment: "If they don't behave, you don't let them go out! Make them stay home, and you have to start when they are young. Today, the mothers don't seem to worry about what their children are doing. Once they get away from their mothers, they do just what they want to do! That's where the correction has to come in.

"My daughter Ismay used to say that the TV has become the nursery -- and I think she was quite right about that. I used to read to my children, and I always tried to bring them up the way my father had brought us up. None of them could say that they didn't have a nice bringing up!'' As a child, Mrs. Tucker attended Flatts Hill School where her teacher was Hattie Burgess ("nice and very strict with us all'') and was married in the small chapel on the edge of Tucker's Town. With her parents committed Methodists, her father was a lay preacher "and we had to go to Sunday School with him. I also taught Sunday School for a long time but now, I go to adult Sunday School classes. When I was a young girl, we had a horse and we'd go around in a horse and buggy. My father used to take us to the exhibition and his big onions would always win prizes. He packed his onions by the box and my mother used to go out and cut the onions for him. The Hollises used to grow fields of Easter lilies. We didn't, but we had them growing all round the house.'' For most of her life, Ora Tucker worked as a maid and possibly acquired her taste for travel when she spent time in New York State with the Outerbridge family when they visited their farm there. "My cousin went as well -- she was the maid and I was their cook.'' Married in 1917 to Ormond Tucker when she was "around 18'', she said their "happy marriage'' lasted for 52 years until he died in an accident 28 years ago.

Until she had trouble with her leg last year, Mrs. Tucker was never happier than when she was tending her own garden."Now, it's all weeds and all I do is sit and look at it. They cut my bananas -- these gardeners now cut down everything they see. I used to grow my own cassava and then they cut the whole tree down. They don't know what they're doing! They come when you're not at home and when you get back, everything's gone!'' Admitting that life is "easier'' these days, Mrs. Tucker recalled that when she was a child her mother had to buy blocks of ice for the `ice box' and she would cook in a `chimney' and bake in a brick oven: "She used to bake twice a week and she would heat up the bricks and get cedar wood and break up the dry wood to cook. She made her own cassava and I would help her -- we had to grate the cassava by hand and it took a long time. When she worked on the farm she would take some of the children with her, but one girl would always stay home and do the housework.'' "God has given me a long time to live -- I am living on borrowed time now. I wasn't going to worry about this birthday but my grandchildren want to do this party for me so I am told about 300 people are coming to the Sergeants' Mess at Warwick Camp on Saturday. I wanted to help, but they won't let me. I am looking forward to it now!''