CHARLES KONG SOO

"I had a good time and very good life," says Rod­er­ick Au­gus­tus Isaac.

Rod­er­ick Au­gus­tus Isaac has 107 rea­sons to be hap­py.

He was born on Feb­ru­ary 5, 1912, and cel­e­brat­ed his mile­stone 107th birth­day with fam­i­ly and friends at the Gold­en Eon Se­nior Cit­i­zen Ac­com­mo­da­tion in Mara­cas, St Joseph.

Isaac is a live wire and very wit­ty. When he saw his fam­i­ly and friends gath­ered for his birth­day cel­e­bra­tion he blurt­ed "So much peo­ple come to see me!"

Gem Man­swell-Ju­man, the own­er of the home said the cen­te­nar­i­an was the main at­trac­tion and cen­tre of at­ten­tion at the home be­cause of his age, the way he talked an­i­mat­ed­ly and had all his mem­o­ry in­tact. She said he en­ter­tained every­one at the home, from res­i­dents, work­ers, to guests and vis­i­tors who mar­velled to know at 107 years how he was so full of life and the joy of liv­ing as he mo­tored around on his elec­tric scoot­er vis­it­ing and chat­ting with res­i­dents.

Isaac has out­lived his wife, El­isha, who passed at 65 years and one of his ten chil­dren. Five of his chil­dren, their spous­es, and chil­dren were at his birth­day par­ty—Vic­ki Pol­ly­dore, Ann McLeod, Lynne Nel­son and An­tho­ny Isaac who re­side in Trinidad, and Ken Isaac who lives in the US. Adelia McBride, Rod­er­ick Isaac Jr, Mon­i­ca Xavier and Kim Bal­lah who re­side in the US could not make the trip.

They were all there in spir­it and elec­tron­i­cal­ly, how­ev­er, Kim, the el­dest, who lives in Flori­da called via cell­phone video link to par­tic­i­pate in her fa­ther's birth­day cel­e­bra­tion and the cut­ting of his cake. The oth­er sib­lings in the US called their fa­ther to wish him a hap­py birth­day lat­er af­ter work.

Isaac's prog­e­ny in­cludes 24 grand­chil­dren, 36 great-grand­chil­dren and four great-great-grand­chil­dren, Lea was born one day be­fore his 107th birth­day.

Isaac said he did car­pen­try and worked at the pump house at the US base, he built his own house and fur­ni­ture and was a jack of all trades. With a twin­kle in his eyes, he said he had to take time off the job to meet the ladies.

Isaac does not suf­fer from any lifestyle dis­eases such as obe­si­ty, heart dis­ease, hy­per­ten­sion or di­a­betes that af­fect so many much younger peo­ple than him in T&T.

When he was 100 years, he was still go­ing to ca­lyp­so tents and shows; his favourite ca­lyp­so­ni­ans are Spar­row and Kitch­en­er.

Isaac likes to read news­pa­pers, watch foot­ball and crick­et, his favourite tele­vi­sion soap op­eras are the Young and the Rest­less and the Bold and the Beau­ti­ful.

His son Ken said his fa­ther was a proud man, the fam­i­ly got their fa­ther a hear­ing aid, but he re­fused to wear it, so he and his sis­ter, Vic­ki act­ed as trans­la­tors for the evening re­lay­ing my ques­tions to their fa­ther in his ears.

"I hang­ing in there un­til God wants to call me home," Isaac said with a chuck­le.

"I had a good time, a very good life. I was a ladies' man, I wasn't choos­ing no la­dy, I was a monarch," he joked to peals of laugh­ter from his fam­i­ly.

"I used to go the­atre in those days. I was a hero, I used to love all them girls and dressed like a saga boy!

"I love to pray and go to mass at the Church of the Anun­ci­a­tion at San­ta Rosa Heights."

Vic­ki said the hos­pi­tal­i­ty group at the church sent gifts to her fa­ther for Christ­mas, Fa­ther's Day, and his birth­day.

When asked if he had a se­cret for long life and good health he said al­ways prayed and gave thanks to God first for his bless­ings.

He said he could eat any­thing, every­thing was good for him, he loved callaloo, mac­a­roni pie, and ice cream.

When asked what ad­vice he can give young peo­ple in to­day's so­ci­ety, he said to put God in their lives first and fore­most, lis­ten to their el­ders (there was a rea­son why they be­came el­ders), to do the right thing, get an ed­u­ca­tion, they had so many op­por­tu­ni­ties to­day.

Even the home's gar­den­er Ruthven Leza­ma got in­to the act of ser­e­nad­ing Isaac on his spe­cial day.