Stel­la Ar­mour was born on Feb­ru­ary 5, 1920, and cel­e­brat­ed her mile­stone 102nd birth­day with fam­i­ly and friends at the home of her daugh­ter Sharon Ar­mour, in Bon Air West, Arou­ca, on Sat­ur­day.

The cen­te­nar­i­an looks like she is in her 80s, she grew up two years af­ter the First World War and lived through the lean years of the Sec­ond World War and the pe­ri­od of ra­tion cards.

Ma­mi, as Ar­mour is fond­ly called, is al­so the proud moth­er of nine chil­dren, 17 grand­chil­dren, 27 great-grand­chil­dren and 25 great-great-grand­chil­dren.

Stella Armour celebrated her 102nd birthday at her home on Murex Street, Bon Air West, Arouca.

NICOLE DRAYTON

Aside from a lit­tle hear­ing loss, she does not suf­fer from any lifestyle dis­eases such as obe­si­ty, heart dis­ease, hy­per­ten­sion or di­a­betes and does not like to vis­it the doc­tor.

When asked about her se­cret to longevi­ty and how she ma­tured so grace­ful­ly at the age of 102 Ar­mour said "The se­cret to a long life is to trust in the Lord in every­thing, I thank God for bless­ing me with my won­der­ful chil­dren and fam­i­ly.

"I eat every­thing, but not much; every­thing in mod­er­a­tion. I keep ac­tive, I go to the mar­ket and en­joy a good game of Rum­my and All Fours, wa­ter the plants, clean the yard and cook.

"For Christ­mas, New Year’s Eve din­ner and J’ou­vert break­fast, I make salt­fish, fry dry, toma­to cho­ka, bread and pas­tries for the fam­i­ly."

On her ad­vice for young peo­ple, she replied that they stop their mis­er­able life, just put their mind and heart in the Lord and turn away from in­iq­ui­ty and vice such as smok­ing.

Ar­mour stat­ed that when she was young Trinidad was qui­et, very nice and de­void of the fight­ing and killing present to­day.

As part of the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme, Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Don­na Cox pre­sent­ed Ar­mour with a Cer­tifi­cate of Achieve­ment and Ho­n­our, a ham­per, a birth­day cake spon­sored by the Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny, a com­mem­o­ra­tive pin, gro­ceries, health sup­plies such as an oxime­ter and a blood pres­sure kit and oth­er items.

She said the min­istry was proud to ho­n­our Ar­mour and in­vit­ed cit­i­zens to reg­is­ter in­for­ma­tion on per­sons who were 100 years and old­er, or who will soon be 100 years.

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tu­na­puna Es­mond Forde al­so wished his con­stituent a very hap­py birth­day.

He had rec­om­mend­ed Ar­mour for the min­istry’s Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme.