| (By Mondale Smith)In my 32 years of existence on planet earth, I’ve encountered and interviewed from paupers to princes but never did I imagine meeting, let alone interviewing Guyana’s oldest living person. I did just that yesterday.Matilda Lewis, born on May 16, 1896, celebrates her 113th birthday today and her birthday wish list, aside from God’s continued blessings, includes having a house to live in and a personal radio set to listen to the news. She lives at the Salvation Army Women’s Home at the corner of Haley and Bent Streets.Contentment is one of her secrets to her longevity; her favourite foods include small portions of rice, fried fish, roti, cook-up-rice, plantains,Cheap Football Jerseys, eddoes and Foo-Foo soup with dumplings made of corn flour.Amidst humble but quieten conversation, the Salvation Army Women’s home resident said,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, “I can’t see anymore and I can’t move about like I used to, but I thank God for sparing my life to see another day and for providing for me.”Sitting opposite the wrinkled woman in her bedroom,Nike NFL Jerseys China, I found that there was a lot for me to learn and while she searched her memory at times, her answers were laced with informed history and current affairs.Unlike some I’ve interviewed, Aunt Matilda was neither boastful nor proud and is eternally grateful for her St Andrew’s Kirk Church and the Salvation Army families who usually encourage her to keep faith in God.Never the type to party, she said her days were spent either at home or attending church concerts and being involved in church activities.“I used to go to the market and cook for meself but since I fall down and knock my knee I can’t do that anymore so the house here is quite comfortable and the people here are kind to me,” she said.Aunt Matilda remembers nostalgic train excursions to Mahaica and Buxton along the East Coast and the many large public transportation buses of her time. To her, the minibuses used for transportation,NFL Jerseys Cheap Authentic, currently, “are always in accidents killing people. I don’t like them at all.”She spoke of the days of Presidents Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte,NFL Jerseys From China, both of whom she met, but fondly remembers watching President Bharrat Jagdeo dance at a senior citizens party. “A handsome fella” is her description of the current President whom she often prays for.Offering kind counsel of the years to the President, the feisty centenarian emphatically encourages, “Ask God to guide your path and do the right things for all Guyanese and clean the drains because Guyana below sea level and the mosquitoes does make me have to cover up.”She recalled a majestic parade that welcomed the “young pretty white girl” (Queen Elizabeth) to Georgetown with the Duke on her arm.Her mobility depends on a wheelchair and she says her great, great niece, Saundra, who resided in the USA, died some years ago. As far as she remembers, her grandfather’s relatives are the “Tates” from Barbados. She also recalls her foster son, Patrick, whom she says visits with her whenever he’s in Guyana.She remembers her mother’s death while she was a child and spoke of growing up in the model Charlestown community. Her childhood memories included her attending the Charlestown Convalescent School where nuns were the teachers, and then she got into the world of work.Aunty Matilda never had any children of her own she but recalled, “I use to work as a domestic and I take care of the Portuguese people children until I got filaria in my hand; then I had to stop.”Aunt Matilda’s memory is as such that she still sings her church hymns.Probably Latin America’s oldest surviving human being, Aunt Matilda, according to Salvation Army captain Gachelin Ernest, is one of nine women at the Wortmanville residence and has been there since 1996.With a chuckle, Aunt Matilda said she was to migrate to Barbados with by her maternal grandfather as a child following her mother’s death but her fears of travelling over water ensured that they never left Guyana. “We got all dressed up to go and then we went to Berbice instead.”To young girls Aunt Matilda encouraged,Cheap NFL Jerseys, “Learn to be independent and maintain yourself, because the young men are always with a set of women and they don’t mind their children.” |
