Ivan Men­don­ca who cel­e­brat­ed his 104th birth­day on June 23rd, 2022 says that every­thing in mod­er­a­tion is one of the keys to longevi­ty. He al­so said “I am proud of my health be­cause I chose to live a healthy lifestyle; I am with­out any se­ri­ous ail­ments.

Mr Men­don­ca is an avid crick­et fan and says he has many books on his favourite sport in his col­lec­tion. Mr Men­don­ca even list­ed some of his favourite crick­eters. “Clive Lloyd, Gor­don Greenidge, Frank Wor­rell, Vi­vian Richards, and Bri­an Lara, he (Bri­an Lara) was a good one,” he said.

De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease…

Every­thing in mod­er­a­tion is one of the keys to longevi­ty says Ivan Men­don­ca who cel­e­brat­ed his 104th birth­day on June 23rd, 2022. He al­so at­trib­uted faith and be­lief in God as at­trib­ut­es to his longevi­ty. To help him cel­e­brate the oc­ca­sion, Mr Men­don­ca was vis­it­ed by Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Jas­mine Pas­cal ac­com­pa­nied by Ms Janin­ka Gomes, In­spec­tor I of the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at his Pointe-A-Pierre home

In at­ten­dance al­so was his daugh­ter Camille Men­don­ca who told rep­re­sen­ta­tives that though he oc­ca­sion­al­ly en­joyed his favourite drink of Har­vey’s Bris­tol Cream, her fa­ther lives a health-con­scious and ac­tive lifestyle and would ab­stain from fast foods, rice, and flour on­ly con­sum­ing soy prod­ucts in­clud­ing milk and cheese, veg­eta­bles and pro­vi­sion.

“I am proud of my health be­cause I chose to live a healthy lifestyle; I am with­out any se­ri­ous ail­ments,” said Mr Men­don­ca.

Min­istry of­fi­cials al­so learned that the fa­ther of five, grand­fa­ther of six, and great-grand­fa­ther of two is an avid crick­et fan hav­ing in his col­lec­tion many books on his fa­vorite sport. Mr Men­don­ca even list­ed some of his fa­vorite crick­eters. “Clive Lloyd, Gor­don Greenidge, Frank Wor­rell, Vi­vian Richards, and Bri­an Lara, he (Bri­an Lara) was a good one,” he said.

Mr Men­don­ca al­so in­di­cat­ed that his first job was as a store clerk in Steven’s and John­sons and worked as a re­fin­ery op­er­a­tor for Tex­a­co un­til his re­tire­ment fur­ther not­ing that grow­ing in, he was well-liked. “In my days I was a heart­throb. I stole a lot of hearts.  Even snagged my wife’s heart at 22 when I was 55.”

With many years of ex­pe­ri­ence, Mr Men­don­ca’s ad­vice to the younger gen­er­a­tion is to “Stay in school to get a good ed­u­ca­tion, al­ways be re­spect­ful to your el­ders and nev­er squan­der and nev­er put all your eggs in one bas­ket.”

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices was pleased to ho­n­our Mr. Men­don­ca as part of the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme. To reg­is­ter for the Pro­gramme, per­sons may vis­it the Min­istry’s web­site at www.so­cial.gov.tt and com­plete the on­line form or print a down­load­able form for com­ple­tion. Com­plet­ed forms may be dropped off at the near­est So­cial Wel­fare Of­fice or emailed to the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at opic@so­cial.gov.tt. For more in­for­ma­tion, per­sons may con­tact the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at 623 – 2608; Ext 2001 to 2009 or 800-OPIC (6742).