RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A day af­ter Dhar­manie Deo turns 111, the coun­try will head to the polls. But for the first time in decades, the na­tion’s old­est cen­te­nar­i­an will not vote.

In 2020, Deo cast her bal­lot.

To­day, she is con­fined to a bed.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia on Thurs­day, her daugh­ter-in-law, Ba­by, said Deo—known as Moyo—is no longer the woman who walked to the mar­ket, tend­ed her gar­den, and gave ad­vice to gen­er­a­tions.

“She is like a child again. We have to do every­thing for her,” Ba­by ex­plained. “She can­not walk. She doesn’t seem aware of what is hap­pen­ing.”

Ba­by said over the past eleven months, Deo's speech has changed.

"Words come slow­ly. Some­times not at all," Ba­by said.

Once a strong sup­port­er of Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who ho­n­oured her many times, Ba­by said Deo no longer rec­og­nizes the faces of politi­cians.

"She was able to vote in the last gen­er­al elec­tions but not in the lo­cal elec­tions and def­i­nite­ly not in this one," Ba­by said.

She said on­ly a few vis­i­tors are al­lowed now and they feel sad to see how frail Deo has be­come.

Last year, the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment cel­e­brat­ed Deo's 110th birth­day.

A day lat­er she grant­ed an in­ter­view with this re­porter, shar­ing sto­ries then—of her fa­ther Joot, who came to Trinidad from Ut­tar Pradesh on the Fa­tel Roza­ck. Deo said he was tricked in­to leav­ing In­dia. Af­ter his in­den­ture­ship end­ed, he made a life in Pe­nal.

Deo of Dig­i­ty Vil­lage, Pe­nal, was the moth­er of sev­en but on­ly one child, Ku­mar has sur­vived. He is mar­ried to Ba­by.

Back then she said her se­cret to longevi­ty was "a sim­ple life."

Deo said she worked hard, sold pro­duce at Mara­bel­la and Pe­nal mar­kets, and raised sev­en chil­dren. She said in her young days she loved to have fun singing at wed­dings. She loved In­di­an cul­ture and nev­er liked to miss com­mu­ni­ty events.

Un­til her re­cent im­mo­bil­i­ty and mem­o­ry loss, Deo gave ad­vice to her lone sur­viv­ing son, 40 grand­chil­dren, 23 great-grand­chil­dren, and 20 great-great-grand­chil­dren.

Ba­by said the fam­i­ly is hold­ing on to every mo­ment with their beloved Moyo.

“We’ve learnt a lot from her. Every day with her is a gift," Ba­by said.