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Thursday, July 17, 2025

100 years of grace for Romaula Estrada

by

Ralph Banwarie
144 days ago
20250223

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

At 100 years old, Ro­maula Estra­da is not just cel­e­brat­ing a mile­stone she is a liv­ing tes­ta­ment of faith, re­silience, and the pow­er of a prayer­ful life.

Her vi­sion is sharp, she has an un­wa­ver­ing spir­it, and a heart full of grat­i­tude. This San­gre Grande ma­tri­arch, a moth­er of nine, cred­its her longevi­ty to God’s love.

“At this age, I can do most of my chores. I have good vi­sion, can read, walk, and every­thing I do, I make the sign of the cross,” Estra­da said con­fi­dent­ly.

Her se­cret to reach­ing this in­cred­i­ble age? Estra­da at­trib­ut­es it to liv­ing a right­eous and prayer­ful life, hav­ing un­wa­ver­ing faith in the Lord, main­tain­ing a con­tent­ed heart, and en­joy­ing a well-bal­anced di­et.

But above all, she be­lieves it is her deep con­nec­tion with God that has kept her strong.

She loves read­ing, and this is how she spends her day at home. Read­ing the news­pa­pers–Guardian and Catholic News–is a must.

“I was read­ing the Guardian. As you see, it is on my lap as you walked in,” Estra­da said. Every morn­ing, her son makes a trip to the San­gre Grande town cen­tre to buy her “favourite” news­pa­per.

Estra­da al­so spends time re­flect­ing on a life shaped by dis­ci­pline and love–the same dis­ci­pline and love she passed on to her chil­dren.

Born on Feb­ru­ary 7, 1925, to Pauli­na and Joseph Gabriel in Ari­ma, Estra­da at­tend­ed the Ari­ma Girls’ Catholic School. She took pride in her im­pec­ca­ble Jack­son-style pen­man­ship, known for its el­e­gant, flow­ing cur­sive, and her strong com­mand of the Eng­lish lan­guage, which set her apart from her par­ents, who pri­mar­i­ly spoke pa­tois.

The cen­te­nar­i­an re­called that, as a young woman, she en­joyed sewing, bak­ing and danc­ing, and loved to dress.

At age 20, she mar­ried the love of her life, John Thomas Estra­da, a school prin­ci­pal.

Estra­da said she raised her chil­dren with “love and kind­ness and nur­tured them to be dis­ci­plined, lov­ing, and car­ing.”

The cen­te­nar­i­an said con­fi­dent­ly that she “nev­er went to court for any of my five boys, and I nev­er will.”

To­day’s chil­dren “lack the love of their par­ents,” she said, and she be­lieves this is re­spon­si­ble for most of their delin­quent be­hav­iour.

How­ev­er, she be­lieves Christ is the so­lu­tion to all prob­lems.

Her ad­vice to moth­ers is that they must “go to church, pray with your chil­dren, and be role mod­els for them.”

Beam­ing with joy, she spoke about her chil­dren, 18 grand­chil­dren, and eight great-grand­chil­dren, all of whom she prays for dai­ly.

Estra­da firm­ly be­lieves that chil­dren to­day are “too lazy, and every­thing they do is a prob­lem.” She re­mem­bered walk­ing four miles to Coryal RC Pri­ma­ry School as a pupil and then com­ing home to do chores, even af­ter a full day of school. She al­so re­called walk­ing from Ari­ma to St Bene­dict in St Au­gus­tine, to at­tend church.

San­gre Grande has been her home for the past 46 years, and she en­joys it there. “I’ve been liv­ing here for 46 years, and I love it,” she said. When asked about stick­fight­ing, as the semi­fi­nals of the com­pe­ti­tion was held in that town on Wednes­day night, she smiled and replied, “I’m not blind, and If I hap­pen to be in the place where stick­fight­ing is tak­ing place, of course, I will look.”


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