Con­sum­ing “home grown food and go­ing to church” are the keys to longevi­ty. 

That’s ac­cord­ing to Eileen Teles­ford, a cen­te­nar­i­an re­cent­ly ho­n­oured un­der the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme, in the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

Eileen Teles­ford—a moth­er of sev­en, grand­moth­er of twelve, great-grand­moth­er of nine­teen, and great-great-grand­moth­er of six—cel­e­brat­ed her 102nd birth­day last Tues­day, Ju­ly 26, 2022.

The for­mer seam­stress and Grena­da na­tive was vis­it­ed by Crys­tal Fe­lix and Nyi­i­da An­drews of the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing, who pre­sent­ed the cen­te­nar­i­an with her Cer­tifi­cate of Ho­n­our and Achieve­ment, a fruit ham­per, and a birth­day cake from the Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny.

Ms Eileen, who has mo­bil­i­ty chal­lenges, says she en­joys re­lax­ing with fam­i­ly mem­bers. She al­so urged the younger gen­er­a­tion to obey their par­ents and, “nev­er hang your hat where your hand can’t reach it.”

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices is en­cour­ag­ing fam­i­ly and loved ones, Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives, friends, and neigh­bours to salute the coun­try’s cen­te­nar­i­ans by reg­is­ter­ing for the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme.

To com­plete the on­line ap­pli­ca­tion form or print a down­load­able form for com­ple­tion, vis­it the Min­istry’s web­site at www.so­cial.gov.tt

The Min­istry says com­plet­ed forms may be dropped off at the near­est So­cial Wel­fare Of­fice or emailed to the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at opic@so­cial.gov.tt  

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For more in­for­ma­tion on the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme, con­tact the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at 623-2608; Ext 2001 to 2009 or 800-OPIC (6742).