“100 not out!” was the theme for the 100th birth­day cel­e­bra­tion of Mr. John Michael Dufeal, who cel­e­brat­ed his cen­te­nary at his Cu­mu­to home, on Mon­day 6 June 2022.

Ac­cord­ing to this re­cent Trinidad and To­ba­go cen­te­nar­i­an, the se­cret to liv­ing to 100 is be­ing faith­ful to God and pray­ing to Him for long life.

“Serve God when you are young, and He will be faith­ful to you. He will not for­get you in your old age,” Mr. Dufeal rec­om­mends to the present gen­er­a­tion.

John Michael Dufeal was vis­it­ed by Sophia Kennedy, an In­spec­tor I at the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing, who pre­sent­ed him with a fruit ham­per, his Cer­tifi­cate of Ho­n­our and Achieve­ment, and a birth­day cake by the Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny—all to ho­n­our him, as part of the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme un­der the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

Sophia Kennedy asked the avid crick­et fan about his favourite team or crick­eter.

“I don’t have no side… The team that usu­al­ly wins,” was his re­sponse.

Born in Grena­da on 6 June 1922, John Michael Dufeal—who mi­grat­ed to Trinidad at the age of 19 years—shared fond mem­o­ries of his time in his coun­try of birth.

“I grew up in St Georges, Grena­da. I re­mem­ber go­ing down to the mar­ket with my moth­er to sell coals, crops and spices,” he re­called.  “I al­so re­mem­ber hav­ing to cross rivers to go to pri­ma­ry school.”

Mr Dufeal, who al­so worked as a gen­er­al work­er on the army base dur­ing World War II, shared how he met Mrs. Dufeal.

“We both lived in Cu­mu­to, but I met her in the train sta­tion. We trav­elled to­geth­er and spoke all the way to San Fer­nan­do. Three months af­ter I saw her in Cu­mu­to Junc­tion… I walked her home, and I con­fessed my love for her at that time,” he re­mem­bers fond­ly.

“I went and see her moth­er and she told me if I liked her daugh­ter, I would have to write for her. I went by a lawyer as soon as pos­si­ble to write two let­ters—one for per­mis­sion to court her and an­oth­er for en­gage­ment. I gave her moth­er the first [let­ter], and one week lat­er, the oth­er,” the cen­te­nar­i­an said.

“We were en­gaged for six months be­fore be­ing mar­ried on 29 Oc­to­ber 1950,” said the fa­ther of nine, grand­fa­ther of 35, great-grand­fa­ther of 55, and great-great-grand­fa­ther of four.

John Michael Dufeal al­so helped to es­tab­lish the Cu­mu­to Church of the Nazarene and worked with the Forestry Di­vi­sion un­til his re­tire­ment.

The Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme is an ini­tia­tive of the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices in which per­sons who have at­tained the age of 100 years and over are spe­cial­ly ho­n­oured.  John Michael Dufeal is one of the re­cent ho­n­ourees, hav­ing achieved 100 years on June 6.

The Min­istry is en­cour­ag­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers and loved ones, Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives, as well as friends and neigh­bours to salute the cen­te­nar­i­ans in their midst by reg­is­ter­ing for them for the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme.

Com­plete the on­line form or print a down­load­able form for com­ple­tion at the Min­istry’s web­site at www.so­cial.gov.tt

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, con­tact the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at 623-2608 (Ext 2001 to 2009), or call 800-OPIC/6742.