Renata Jhavoy (Brown) Smith of Johnstown, a native of Jamaica, pledged her loyalty to the United States during the event where she repeated the Naturalization Oath while brushing away emotional tears.

“It means a lot to me to become a citizen,” Smith said. “I almost gave up a couple of times and went back home.”

Smith said she was 17 years old in 2005 when she arrived in New York City to live with her aunt and grandmother, both of whom later died.

While she married and had two children, she said that marriage didn’t work out and she thought about returning to Jamaica.

When she mentioned that option to her mother, who still lives in Jamaica, Smith said her mother told her to stay in the United States and work through her struggles.

Now closing in on her 33rd birthday, Smith said she is glad she took her mother’s advice.

She has married a second time and in October, she settled in Johnstown with her children, 11 and 14 years old. She works as a certified nurse’s aide, a job that puts her in a position of regularly helping others.

“Your story is one of persistence,” Judge Timothy M. Sullivan told Smith as he praised her efforts and her citizenship pursuit.

Blair County leaders have a long history of periodically hosting naturalization ceremonies at the courthouse. While prior ceremonies have often included county residents, residents of other counties have been included, too, in an event where they pledge allegiance to the United States.

President Judge Elizabeth Doyle administered the oath of citizenship to Smith, after Prothonotary Robin Patton presented Smith’s applications for citizenship. Doyle also offered congratulatory remarks, echoed by fellow judges Daniel J. Milliron, Wade A. Kagarise and Jackie Atherton Bernard.

Steve Montgomery, on behalf of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Department of Homeland Security, presented Smith with her certificate of citizenship that she displayed proudly while being photographed.

Others participating in the ceremony were tipstaff Fred Guyer and soloists Lindsey Griffith and Bob Hench.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.