- ContributedMiriam Walker proudly displays her citizenship papers and a United States flag after being sworn-in as a U.S. citizen last week at her Bronx home.
Lolita Long, Editor, New York office
NEW YORK:
SHE couldn't go to the swearing-in ceremonies that were scheduled. So representatives of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) came to her instead.
And, in less than 10 minutes, 87-year-old Jamaican-born Miriam Adina Walker, an invalid, was a U.S. citizen.
Richard Berryman, assistant district director for the INS in New York, was at Ms. Walker's home on Gunther Avenue in the Bronx last week to swear in Ms. Walker during a ceremony witnessed by family members and children.
"So, you...me citizen...you see me paper and number," she said, struggling with a speech impediment as she lay propped up in her bed. "Me, me, me come from Jamaica."
She held onto the U.S. flag and her citizenship certificate, which included her INS number - A37-826-768 - and scrawls on the section she would have signed her name. The swearing-in of Ms. Walker, is part of the INS's "Home Bound" programme, when persons who are physically challenged take the Oath of Allegiance where they live in ceremonies conducted by the INS.
"The New York District does about 250 such ceremonies every year," said INS spokesman Mark Thorn.
Ms. Walker is cared for by her daughter-in-law Dorette Ruby, a nurse's aide.
"I bathe her, feed her, cook, everything," Ms. Ruby said. "I take good care of her and when she go to the doctor they wonder as she has no bedsores. No ma'am, none whatsoever."
For the ceremony, Ms. Walker wore red lipstick and matching nail polish.
"I even fix her up nice for this ceremony, cause ah want her to look good," Ms. Ruby said.
Ms. Walker, who is partially deaf, came to the U.S. over 20 years ago, overstayed her time, worked as an illegal alien for years, before her employer filed for her and changed her immigration status. She was born in Four Paths, St. Elizabeth, and grew up in Springfield. She has two sons, Gladwin Ruby, with whom she lives, and "another in England somewhere." Mr. Ruby, who worked as a mechanic for years in Mandeville, drives a tractor-trailer for the Ryder Company.
He related stories of coming to the U.S. and facing "pressure and hardship." But he was in an upbeat mood last week because his mom had become a U.S. citizen.
"All ah we a citizens now," he said.
