Help needed on Tanty Ruth’s Pension

Ruth Ferary Mitchell recently celebrated her 103rd birthday. Many relatives and friends gathered to celebrate with her. It was a nice occasion but I was disturbed to learn recently that she was experiencing difficulties in accessing her pension from the USA.

She is a nurse trained at the Colonial Hospital, Kingstown, St. Vincent where she worked for a while before migrating to the USA. She chose to retire at the first opportunity and returned home. She married her teenage sweetheart King Augustus Mitchell, and they lived a full life together until he died a few years ago having lived for over 100 years also. Recently, she was apparently being required to present herself to American embassy personnel who were visiting mainland St. Vincent, but at her age, travelling by sea or air was too tedious a task for her to undertake.

Tanty Ruth has been a blessing to the Union Island community all her life and always made her contribution when called upon. She is a staunch Anglican and puts her trust fully in her God. Her recent pension woes have limited her generosity capacity and we all need to do what we can to have her pension restored. She is one who believes in prayer and while we can all pray for the restoration of her pension, the following persons can pray more:

1. Bishop Leopold Friday, Bishop of the Windward Islands
2. Hon Terrance Ollivierre, Southern Grenadines MP
3. Hon Edwin Snagg, Director of Grenadines Affairs
4. Mrs. Sherma Selby-Adams Revenue Officer, Union Island
5. Hon Keisal Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs
6. SVG Counsul General in New York
7. Hon Minister of Grenadines Affairs
8. US Ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Long life is a blessing. Care givers are assured of jobs, and the rest of us benefit from access to the years of accumulated experience and wisdom.

By Anthony G. Stewart, PhD