The island’s newest centenarian has some words of advice for young people.
Mildred Eunice Cumberbatch, of Ashton Hall, St Peter, celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday with family and friends and Acting Governor General Sir Philip Greaves.
Her advice was especially for those who were raising children.
“Get up and help yourself. You cannot sit down all the time and expect somebody to help you all the time,” she said.
The mother of six – one boy and five girls, one of whom predeceased her – said she cut and tied cane, cut grass, raked trash, washed and cooked and did “all sorts of work”.
She said it was important to eat well, while naming foods like potato, banana, breadfruit and yam.
“If you eat, you can work, but if you don’t eat you cannot work . . . . Mildred work and Mildred work; she run and jump. She do some of everything except steal,” she added.
The centenarian also spoke of her strict upbringing by her grandmother and aunt, saying that if they as children came home with something, they would be met with a slew of questions on how they got it.
Daughter Belinda Cumberbatch-Lawrence, speaking at her Friendly Hall, St Lucy home where the celebration was held, said: “I never thought I would see this.”
Both of her parents, who were married for 66 years, have lived to see a century. Dad Cuthbert Chesterfield Cumberbatch died four months shy of his 103rd birthday in 2013.
She shared fond memories of growing up with her mother, whom she described as a devout Christian, even as Cumberbatch said “Thank you, Jesus” in the background.
Cumberbatch was a long-time member of the United Baptist Church in Speightstown, St Peter, and although she did not get out to services often, attended a special church service there last Sunday.
“I have known my mother to be a Christian all her life. She raised us with very strong principles and always asked us to focus on having a good education or a skill because she had to go and work early. She did not benefit from a formal education since her parents died early and she had to work to help her siblings,” she said.
Cumberbatch had no illnesses to speak of, having made a full recovery from a stroke in the 1980s. Her memory is still intact and she enjoys a meal of soup or cou-cou.
Sir Philip, who was performing one of his final acts as Acting Governor General ahead of yesterday’s swearing-in of Dame Sandra Mason, said she was the most sprightly centenarian he had visited during his six-month tenure. (LK)
