Mar­jorie Prim­rose Roach cred­it­ed her longevi­ty to her faith in God.

Join­ing her to cel­e­brate the mile­stone yes­ter­day, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Min­is­ter Don­na Cox was joined by In­spec­tor II of the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing, Crys­tal Fe­lix, Roach’s fam­i­ly and close friends at her Tu­na­puna home.

Pre­sent­ing a cer­tifi­cate of ho­n­our and achieve­ment to Roach, Cox told Roach that liv­ing to be 106 was an im­pres­sive ac­com­plish­ment.

Pressed to say what was her se­cret and the way of life that con­tributed to her longevi­ty, Roach sur­prised all as she said, “I don’t have no se­cret, it is all the Heav­en­ly Fa­ther.”

Roach and Cox ren­dered a hearty ren­di­tion of “One day at a time sweet Je­sus.”

Elab­o­rat­ing about the strides her min­istry has been do­ing to recog­nise se­niors that fall un­der the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing, Cox said the soon to be re-launched Salu­ta­tion to Cen­te­nar­i­ans Pro­gramme is one where per­sons who have at­tained the age of 100 and old­er are recog­nised and ho­n­oured for their con­tri­bu­tions and how their pos­i­tive in­flu­ence of the evo­lu­tion of so­ci­ety.

Cox al­so pre­sent­ed Roach with a ham­per cour­tesy the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

And a gift cour­tesy the of­fice of the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tu­na­puna, Es­mond Forde was al­so pre­sent­ed to Roach.

Born in Bar­ba­dos on Oc­to­ber 10, 1915­—Roach moved to Trinidad with her hus­band Dud­ley Roach in 1945, who worked on the rail­way as a fore­man and car­pen­ter. She had three chil­dren Shirley, Pat­sy and Ran­dolph and three grand­chil­dren Kyle, Keon and Ker­ry.

Pat­sy Roach said her moth­er worked as a seam­stress and would eat every­thing and any­thing in­clud­ing cou-cou, pelau, peas and rice, stew, and baked chick­en.