On Saturday, four generations gathered in Brooklyn to celebrate the 93-year-old matriarch. The matriarch first earned 50 cents hanging curtains in New York, where she was a “tough cookie” who survived being shot in the face during a 2001 robbery.
Annie Brown celebrated her birthday at Crown Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation Center with sisters Vivian Brockington, 89, and Elizabeth Bethea, 86, and about 30 other relatives.
“Every year God shows me something that I celebrate,” Brown, a former daycare owner, told the Post.
The crew enjoyed macaroni and cheese, rice and peas, chicken stew, beef patties, candied yams, and collard greens while listening to Stevie Wonder tunes coming from the DJ booth.
Surrounded by gold and blue balloons, the sisters wore color-coordinated gold dresses.
The three recently reunited at the facility where Brockington and Bethea live. Brown was just released after spending the past three months rehabbing after an injury and still visits weekly.
It was a special time for the sisters, who would gather in Brockington’s room every morning.
“We discussed whether we would have a music time, church service, arts and crafts, or other activities during the morning ritual or morning assembly,” staffer Justina Silver told the Post.
They got their hair and nails done at the center’s salon (Brown always had red nails) and then had dinner together.
Brown, who was shot in the head during a horrific armed robbery 23 years ago, has returned to the Bushwick home he has owned since 1986.
Her granddaughter, Lisa Brown, said the 70-year-old was chased home by the ex-con after she cashed the check. He pulled out a gun on Brown’s front porch and shot her grandmother in the head, even though her quick-thinking grandmother grabbed her fishing rod to protect herself.
His daughter Louise Bradley, 74, called an ambulance.
“I was running in the yard praying for her,” Bradley told the Post. “I was shocked. I had just lost her father the year before.
“But she didn’t fall. She was chasing the man who shot her with a fishing rod,” she said. “The bullet remained in her head for over a year!”
Brown has since been honored by gun violence survivors’ organizations. “She’s a tough cookie,” her granddaughter said.
‘Push it up’
“Don’t give up. Keep pushing,” is Brown’s advice for longevity.
Her best friend Jenny Saunders, 98, also took part in Saturday’s celebrations, adding: “Let’s think positive, stay positive, don’t drink, don’t smoke, and eat good food.”
The two talk on the phone most nights, sometimes until midnight.
Brown, who has two daughters, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, said she is grateful for each decade she has been here, even though she has watched the city “go wild.”
The sisters were born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, and come from a family of seven who moved to New York during the Great Migration to escape Jim Crow laws and racial hostility in the 1950s. Many of them settled throughout Brooklyn.
The sisters have about 40 grandchildren, and many of their family members have served the city. Brown’s daughters worked in the city’s Department of Transportation and Department of Corrections. Other relatives were employed by the City Education Department and the Citywide Administrative Services Department.
“Everyone has their own place, and over the years things happen and people move in and out, but we’re always together,” Beshear said.
“Being around your family and loved ones certainly extends your lifespan,” Brown’s great-grandmother Tatiana Brockington, 34, said of her relatives.
