Cesmine Joyie Kiffin (Calis) was born on January 12, 1955, in Silver Springs, Clarendon, Jamaica to the late Albert and Floribel Kiffin. She was the fourth of eight children.
She attended Frankfield Comprehensive High School, now Edwin Allen High School and subsequently Jamaica School of Commerce where she honed her skills in business and accounting.
After leaving business school she worked with Motor Owners Mutual Insurance Company on Half-Tree Road, Kingston Jamaica as an Accountant. She migrated to the United States in the latter half of the 1980’s. Paterson was her home and her first job was at Associated Fire Protection Services.
As a family we believed in education, she earned her associate’s degree in accounting from Passaic County Community College in the early 1990’s and later a B.S. in Health Science from Phoenix University, Atlanta.
Her personal attributes of kindness, sincerity, and honesty combined with a desire to help people were her hallmark. Her intense love of children made her the most favorite uuntie to her nieces and nephews and the many other children who she would counsel.
Cesmine liked cooking and her ambition was to open a restaurant one day, however, ill health altered her plans. She was always ready to entertain and accommodate, and she was most known for making the wickedest Jamaican Christmas cake ever. For Cesmine, Georgia was home and New Jersey was the runner up. She was well loved by her neighbors, associates, co-workers and her extended Georgia family who looked out, and supported her through thick and thin on her journey.
She was adored by her nieces, nephews, and for the many other children who called her Mom or Auntie Calis, all whose lives she touched in countless ways. She was a source of strength to her family and will be remembered for her captivating smile, laughter, nurturing and caring spirit, plus her engaging and bubbly personality. She leaves a void that is irreplaceable.
She leaves to cherish precious memories, a son, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins and a host of other relatives and friends.