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Monday, June 16, 2025

Dharmie ‘Moyo’ Deo celebrates 110 

by

Radhica De Silva
411 days ago
20240501
Supercentenarian Dharmie “Moyo” Deo celebrates her 110th birthday at her Digity Trace, Penal home with her family.

Supercentenarian Dharmie “Moyo” Deo celebrates her 110th birthday at her Digity Trace, Penal home with her family.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

She has reached the re­mark­able age of 110, yet cen­te­nar­i­an Dharmie Deo, af­fec­tion­ate­ly known as Moyo, still does not wear glass­es. 

It was on­ly about ten years ago that her eye­sight be­gan to weak­en, and on­ly re­cent­ly did she start to ex­pe­ri­ence mem­o­ry loss. No longer able to cook or clean, as her health de­clines, she rem­i­nisces about her child­hood, re­mem­ber­ing sto­ries from her fa­ther, Joot, an In­di­an in­den­tured labour­er from Ut­tar Pradesh, about his jour­ney to Trinidad on the Fa­tel Raza­ck.

Joot had been tricked in­to com­ing to Trinidad, and af­ter he served his in­den­ture­ship, he made his life in Trinidad, leav­ing Moru­ga to set­tle in Pe­nal.

Last week­end, the com­mu­ni­ty of Pe­nal cel­e­brat­ed Deo’s 110th an­niver­sary with cake, ice cream, song, and dance. A team from the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing, led by Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment Don­na Cox, at­tend­ed the cel­e­bra­tions and pre­sent­ed Deo with a Cer­tifi­cate of Ho­n­our. 

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, her daugh­ter-in-law, Ba­by, re­vealed that Deo still en­joys eat­ing sweets and drink­ing Chub­by. Ba­by’s hus­band, Ku­mar, is Deo’s last sur­viv­ing child, and they re­side in Dig­i­ty Vil­lage, Pe­nal. 

Asked about her se­cret to longevi­ty, Ba­by shared that Deo loved hard work and had spent most of her life gar­den­ing and sell­ing in the Mara­bel­la and Pe­nal mar­kets.

Ear­li­er in life, Deo and a group of friends spent week­ends singing at wed­dings and farewells, as well as par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Di­vali Na­gar and oth­er In­di­an shows in her com­mu­ni­ty.
She re­mained sharp un­til her late nineties, sell­ing her pro­duce and of­fer­ing life ad­vice to her 40 grand­chil­dren, 23 great-grand­chil­dren, and 20 great-great-grand­chil­dren.

Ba­by not­ed that as a moth­er of sev­en, Deo had plen­ty of ex­pe­ri­ence in par­ent­ing and was straight­for­ward about rais­ing chil­dren prop­er­ly. 

De­spite los­ing six of her chil­dren and her hus­band, Deo has main­tained her grace and qui­et de­meanour. The fam­i­ly’s home is sit­u­at­ed atop a hill where the gen­tle breeze brings so­lace to Deo. 

She prefers to eat light­ly, say­ing, “I don’t like to feel full. These days, I feel heavy.” Her di­et con­sists of home­grown chick­en, crix, and quar­ter of a roti. She feels blessed to cel­e­brate 110 years, ex­press­ing grat­i­tude for her life. “I al­ways said I would live to 110. Look, I made it. I don’t want any­thing in life. Any­thing I get, I am thank­ful.”

Ba­by said they were grate­ful for the time they have with Moyo and have all learned a lot from her. 


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