“God. All the way. Only God.”

According to 100-year-old Myrtle Gomes, this is the secret to her longevity.

She celebrated the milestone on September 18th 2024, with an intimate celebration at the Hyatt Trinidad.

Despite her age, Ms Gomes still enjoys doing light exercises, reading the newspaper, tending to her plants and keeping up with “The Young and the Restless”, “The Bold and the Beautiful” and westerns.

She also looks forward to the early morning and midday Ma.ss on the Living Water Community TV station.

Ms Gomes spoke with the Social Development Ministry about memorable moments in her life, which includes the Carnival Tuesday she met her husband: “I met my husband, Cecil Gomes, on the February 18, 1947. It was a Carnival Tuesday, and I was at a friend’s home on Henry Street with my two boys, looking at the parade of bands. He worked at Furness Withy at the time, delivering blocks of ice to the bands. Once he realized that we knew the same people, he said he finished his route, returned home to change his clothes, and made his way back to Henry Street for an introduction. We married later that year on October 26 and stayed together until his death in 1989. We have eleven children and thirty-two grandchildren.”

Ms Gomes also reflected on how society has changed from her younger days to now, saying while progress has been made, basic foundational values are missing: “I lived through the time of rations in World War II when you had to line up very early in the morning to get rice, flour, coals, pitch oil, etc. So what I experience now is a far cry from that. On the other hand, back then, a neighbourhood was more of a community. Less money and ‘things’ but more love. Neighbourly love flowed like family. We had a saying: ‘When one head hurt, everybody (in the community) head hurt too.’ If one person didn’t have food, a neighbor was sure to send something for them. Today, people don’t even say good morning when they pass you outside your house. So we have more of everything now—cars, food, and such. Plenty of progress, but basic decency and manners are lacking.”