Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Don­na Cox vis­it­ed Ms. Nor­ma Drakes, the el­dest res­i­dent of the Bish­op Amaz­ing Home (El­der­ly Care) to cel­e­brate her birth­day.

Ms Nor­ma shared her se­cret to liv­ing to one hun­dred and three is eat­ing “long-time food.” “Good food, home-grown chick­en and food eat­en straight from the ground”.

De­tails fol­low be­low…

For her 103rd birth­day, Ms. Nor­ma Drakes, the el­dest res­i­dent of the Bish­op Amaz­ing Home (El­der­ly Care) re­ceived a spe­cial birth­day greet­ing when vis­it­ed by the Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Don­na Cox on Oc­to­ber 31, 2022, the day of her birth. The home is lo­cat­ed in Clax­ton Bay where Ms. Drakes has been a res­i­dent for ap­prox­i­mate­ly one year. How­ev­er, Ms. Drakes grew up in Clax­ton Bay and at­tend­ed the Sum Sum Hill Gov­ern­ment School.

Min­is­ter Cox was joined by Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Sheila Seecha­ran and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing and Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Ed­u­ca­tion Unit. Dur­ing the vis­it, Min­is­ter Cox asked the cen­te­nar­i­an what is her se­cret to liv­ing to one hun­dred and three (103). Ac­cord­ing to “Ms. Nor­ma” or “Aun­ty”, the se­cret is eat­ing “long-time food.” “Good food, home-grown chick­en and food eat­en straight from the ground” said Ms. Drakes. Min­is­ter Cox al­so asked the cen­te­nar­i­an about her favourite meal and in a hearty re­sponse, Ms Drakes re­spond­ed "Well, I eat every­thing" and stat­ed that she es­pe­cial­ly loves meat. Not­ing this, home­own­er Ms. Bernadette Bish­op cooked her favourite meal of rice, stewed chick­en and pi­geon peas. Cel­e­brat­ing with the cen­te­nar­i­an were her nephews Ju­nior and Nor­man Ross and niece-in-law Mau­reen Ross. Rel­a­tives in­di­cat­ed that Ms Drakes has no bi­o­log­i­cal chil­dren but was and has been in­stru­men­tal in their lives since birth. Ms. Drakes al­so said she is quite con­tent­ed and en­joys life.

At the end of the cel­e­bra­tion, Min­is­ter Cox pre­sent­ed Ms. Drakes with her Cer­tifi­cate of Ho­n­our and Achieve­ment, a ham­per cour­tesy of the Na­tion­al Agri­cul­tur­al Mar­ket­ing and De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (NAMDE­V­CO), and a birth­day cake from spon­sor, the Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny. The Min­is­ter al­so took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to greet and en­gage oth­er res­i­dents of the home.

To reg­is­ter for the pro­gramme, per­sons may vis­it the Min­istry’s web­site at www.so­cial.gov.tt and com­plete the on­line form or print a down­load­able form for com­ple­tion. 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, per­sons may con­tact the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at 623 – 2608; Ext 2002 to 2009, or 800-OPIC (6742).