Soon to be 100, Sis­ter Marie Thérèse com­mem­o­rat­ed for her ser­vice to the coun­try, thanked for the decades of time that she has spent in look­ing af­ter the poor and the vul­ner­a­ble.

De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from MS­DFS:

Sis­ter Marie Thérèse Rétout has re­ceived many ac­co­lades through­out her life­time for her out­stand­ing ser­vice to the na­tion. Among these in­clude the re­ceipt of the high­est na­tion­al dis­tinc­tion in France, the Medal ‘Cheva­lier in the Or­der of the Le­gion d’ Hon­neur’ pre­sent­ed to her by the then French Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go Charley Cause ret on March 22nd, 2007.

On 7th March, 2022, Sis­ter Rétout re­ceived the Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it Gold for the year2020 by Her Ex­cel­len­cy Paula-Mae Weekes, Pres­i­dent of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The pub­lished au­thor has al­so re­ceived nu­mer­ous plaques of ap­pre­ci­a­tion from the Arch­dio­cese of Port of Spain, Ed­i­tor in Chief of the Catholic News, Parish of St, There­sa Barataria and grate­ful friends.

Sis­ter Marie Thérèse re­ceived an ad­di­tion­al ho­n­our to­day when the Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Don­na Cox vis­it­ed the Cen­te­nar­i­an at the Holy Name Con­vent to ho­n­our her, as part of the Min­istry’s Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme and to be­stow ear­ly birth­day greet­ings to Sis­ter Marie Thérèse, who will cel­e­brate her 100thbirth­day on Sat­ur­day April 23rd

“It is not every day some­one turns one hun­dred, so the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices through the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing has de­cid­ed we will cel­e­brate all per­sons one hun­dred years and over,” said Min­is­ter Cox, be­fore join­ing in singing and cel­e­brat­ing Sis­ter Marie Thérèse.

Learn­ing of Sis­ter Marie Thérèse’ sev­en­ty years in Trinidad and To­ba­go and twen­ty years of ser­vice in the area of ed­u­ca­tion at the St. Do­minic’s Chil­dren’s Home in Bel­mont, Port of Spain,and sev­en­teen (17) years of car­ing for the poor in Barataria and en­vi­rons, Min­is­ter Cox thanked her for her out­stand­ing work to­wards the poor and vul­ner­a­ble in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Min­is­ter Cox pre­sent­ed Sis­ter Rétout with her Cer­tifi­cate of Ho­n­our and Achieve­ment, a food ham­per and a per­son­alised birth­day cake from the Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny.

Sis­ter Marie Thérèse told the Min­ster that she feels ho­n­oured to at­tain the mile­stone age of 100. “I thank God for cre­at­ing me and for help­ing me to live ac­cord­ing to His will. I am full of grat­i­tude and lov­ing care. I feel hap­py and ho­n­oured to live to make it to one hun­dred years” she added.

The French na­tive who ar­rived in Trinidad from Paris on Feb­ru­ary 9th 1952 at the age of 30, al­so not­ed that though it was not an easy life, it has been one of sac­ri­fi­cial love.

Sis­ter Marie Thérèse al­so told the Min­is­ter that ini­tial­ly she did not move to Trinidad. “I did not want to come to Trinidad but they say God is a Tri­ni and that must be true. I saw the beau­ti­ful soul of the peo­ple. I love Trinidad. I love To­ba­go” said Sis­ter Marie Thérèse.

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices was pleased to ho­n­our our lat­est cen­te­nar­i­an and en­cour­age fam­i­ly and loved ones, Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives, friends, and neigh­bours to salute our na­tion’s cen­te­nar­i­ans by reg­is­ter­ing 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 2001 to2009 or 800-OPIC (6742).