Granny Gheeta spent most of her life living in Kingston  where she was surrounded by the flow of a metropolis; as well as the changing conditions of a country under siege by criminals.

Granny spent most of her time in the house conducting her daily chores or going to the market to buy produce for meal preparation. She mostly viewed the "goings on" of the world through her lace curtains that adorned her window.

As political tensions rose in Jamaica, and the young generation became more truant, Granny witnessed many dsiplays of illegal activity in her neighborhood. She was never one to get involved in affairs that did not concern her, or to create waves. However, when it began affecting the quality of life that she had grown accustomed to, it really ired her wrath and made her more vocal about the matter.

Being elderly and surrounded by a generation who believed that there was no other alternative to life than to deal drugs, Granny felt that she had to take the necessary steps to protect herself. There were far too many instances where she was plagued or frightened by gunshots coming from a distance. She decided to install burglar bars on her home. She was ambivalent at first to take these measures because she came from a time where families in Jamaica felt comfortable leaving their front doors and windows open.

Granny would joke and say, "It is getting increasingly difficult for me to run and wind up the aluminum windows, when I hear the gunshots firing from afar. We all know that bullets don't have eyes and they land in any direction."

After she took the proactive way of protecting herself by grilling the entire house from top to bottom, it became an interesting time whenever paying her a visit. Granny Gheeta had to go around with a bunch of keys. It became an art for her to decipher which keys were for what area. It would take her approximately 15-20 minutes to allow a vistor to gain access. Family members who went to visit often joked, she had created her own private Fort Knox.

I would often comment,"Well

Granny, if someone was chasing me, by the time you open the door, it would be all over."

She would smile serenely and comment, "No, they have better sense than that."

Granny Gheeta did not care about anyone's funny remarks she was determined to take a bite out of crime. Granny would always tell me, "I wear crepe soles so that I can get around faster than the criminals, but you and I both know those vermits have esp when it comes to hooliganism."

Although Granny had taken the initiative to protect her home and family against wrong doings in the neighborhood. She was determined not to let the criminals deter her from living a happy and healthy lifestyle. She decided to enlist the help of other retired folks to join the Neighborhood Watch

. They began patrolling the neighborhood hoping to talk sense into the young criminals in training.

Granny and her cohorts were often seen counselingjuvenile delinquents who were desperately making a living by selling drugs. The fear factor never entered their minds. While gunshots would fire, sirens would be wailing,Granny Gheeta

and her friends would continue their advicing, giving the young men and women suggestions to join the military.
Her answer for everything was discipline.

She felt, if a person had structure and discipline there was nothing that he/she could not accomplish. Granny would say, "Instead of shooting up innocent people and peddling contraband, why don't you children join the army and do some real good?"

Granny Gheet a thought that if they were going to shoot a gun and hurt innocent people, then they should be properly trained. Then, their energies would be appropriately channeled into defending their country. She knew that the Army provided them with a Life Plan and Strategy. It was an opportunity to go from nowhere to somewhere in life. She would try to convince the thugs that being a hoodlum had limited possibilities.

Her endeavors had a way of turning the whole situation around, she eventually had the young vagabonds looking out for her and the other elderly citizens in the neighborhood. In return, she would supply them with books to read and sweet treats. Eventually, she became know as the "Crime Fighting Granny".

It was Granny's opinion that when people defiled and robbed their own neighborhoods, they minimized the value of their communities and properties, thus making it more difficult to enlist the help of outsiders to increase prosperity.

On a sultry summer evening, an enterprising criminal decided to test Granny Gheeta's will. Apparently he had broken into the house next door and was trying to make a daring escape by cutting through her backyard. Unfortunately for him, he decided to trample on her azaela bushes. Granny just happened to be watering her flowers in the front of the yard when she caught a quick glimpse of the criminal trying to make a get-away. Granny Gheeta took off her Clark Sandals and through it at the criminal hitting him on his head, stopping him in his tracks instantly. While the police sirens wailed in her directon, Granny Gheeta turned on her hose at full power and doused the tresspasser with water until he fell into the moat that separated the next house.

When the police arrived, they found the young criminal shriveled up in a corner too afraid to confront Granny Gheeta, fearful that she would "sick" her German Shepherd dogs on him.The Police were able to cart the criminal away, and after that fate filled day, thugs  never dared to step foot into Granny Gheeta's neighborhood again.

After the incident, I asked Granny Gheeta, "Whatpossessed

you to endanger yourself like that?"

She calmly responded, "Ghost know who to frighten, If you givethose

hooligans a yard, they will take a mile!"

In other words, if citizens don't say NO to crime, eventually the crime lords will take over communities and people will become prisoners in their own lives.

Granny wasn't able to contain crime throughout Jamaica,

however she was able to create her "kind of wonderful" in a neighborhood she had proudly raised her family.

Tags: Granny and I talk about New Beginnings