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.