At a certain age, every birthday is a milestone.
No one knows this better than Basoo Ajodha who turned 101 on Thursday.
She celebrated with her family as well as Social Development Minister Donna Cox at her Centeno Branch Trace, Penal home.
The mother of seven, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of nine, spoke about her life and also shared lessons she learnt in her life’s journey.
Married at the tender age of 12, she said, “I work hard enough to mind meh children.”
Ajodha, who has outlived her husband recalled that he had to leave his job after he got ill and she used to plant crops to provide for her children.
However, at this age she still does gardening.
“Ah plant meh lil bodi, ah plant meh lil peas, ah plant meh eddoes, ah plant meh dasheen and that is it. No now I can’t cook now, but anything to help a little I will try to help them but they doesn’t want me to do nothing.”
Asked by the minister what is her secret to longevity, Ajodha said, “You have to live a good life. You can’t quarrel with people. You can’t quarrel with neighbours. You can’t quarrel with nobody. You must always live good.
Somebody tell you something out of the way do like you ent hear them.” Ajodha, a devout Hindu, said she had no particular birthday gift in mind. “Anything, anything,” she replied when asked what she wanted for her birthday.
Cox said her ministry has been celebrating centenarians throughout the country as part of the Ministry’s National Centenarian Programme. The minister brought a birthday cake and a plaque for Ajodha, and she said her ministry has also decided to honour centenarians with a gold medal.
“We are encouraging persons if you have elderly persons who are approaching 100, call the ministry, give the information to us and we will get back to them and we will be part of that celebration. If it is not a celebration at least we will have that information on our database and we could present that person with their medal,” the minister said.
Ajodha’s daughter Mynee Deo was thankful that they still have their mother in their lives.
Describing her mother as a very special and nice person, she said Ajodha still does her gardening and helps them in anyway that she could.
“We couldn’t ask for a better mom. She is a very, very nice person,” she said proudly.
Two of Ajodha’s children are deceased.
