True role models are those who possess the qualities that we would like to have and those who have affected us in a way that makes us want to be better people.

A little wrinkled at 113, yet still going is the determined Ms. Matilda Lewis

One such individual, Ms. Matilda Lewis, was honoured Saturday by her house of worship, St. Andrew’s Kirk , as she celebrated her 113th birthday.

Born on May 16, 1896, during the reign of Queen Victoria, Grannie Matilda, as she is fondly called, holds the distinction of being possibly the oldest person recorded alive in South America.

At 113, she is cared for by the Salvation Army, and despite having lost her ability to walk and to see, she is determined and still going.

Since 1988, her home has been the Salvation Army Women’s Home, on Bent and Haley Streets, Wortmanville, in the city.

“I never believed I would have lived to be this age, but it’s the grace of God keeping me and sending friends to take care of me and God will bless them,” she said Saturday.

Her unwavering faith in a Greater Being, she said, is her rock and she explained that nowadays people need to believe in something, and more often than not it is recommended that they turn to God.

“My eyes are dark and I cannot walk, but I thank God that I have life even if I am not so strong…,” Grannie Matilda said.

However, only a year ago as she turned 112-years-old, she was not too optimistic about seeing another birthday, adding then, in an interview, that, “I don’t think I will go any more, because pains in the knee, hands and all about; I don’t feel so strong…”

Still, she managed to see another birthday, as she regaled those who visit her with the stories of the old days and how things have changed.

According to one of the other women at the home, who is also Grannie Matilda’s helper, Mrs. Edith King, Ms Lewis always has interesting stories of her life that she often shares with the women there.

One of Grannie Matilda’s more popular stories is when she is dreaming one night, as a young girl, that she had died and was looking down at herself in a coffin.

She said when she awoke and told her aunt, the aunt responded that what it simply meant was that she would live a ‘long life.’

Each time she proudly ends the tale by saying, “Now I see what she was talking about.”

In Charlestown, Georgetown, Ms. Lewis grew up with an aunt after the death of her mother while she was still very young. She was never married and has no children.

While with her aunt, she recalled that she went to the Charlestown Convent School, as a little girl, which was where she strengthened the foundation of a faith left with her by her mother.

In the days following her childhood, Ms. Lewis recalls working as a domestic with a wealthy Portuguese family but also remembers having to stop after getting filaria in her hand.

But before her illness, she recalls that as a domestic she took pride in knowing that not one speck of dust would escape her duster nor cobweb got away.

She recalled dusting the dinner wagon until it was so shine you couldn’t see a speck of dust.

“At Christmastime, you took down all the wares and washed them clean, no matter if they already looking clean…,”

However Grannie Matilda acknowledges that there cannot be all work and no play.

According to her, her fun was at church where she was comfortable.

Of course, with fun came other goodies like one’s favourite foods and, smiling, Grannie Matilda said her favourite foods were callaloo soup with foo-foo, ochroes and tripe, cook-up rice, roti and metemgee.

When she spoke to the Guyana Chronicle last year, Grannie Matilda shared the recipe for her favourite metemgee, rattling off from the top of her head: “You peel the provision, wash them properly, grate the coconut, extract the milk and boil it down low. You add soda dumpling (made from corn flour mixed with white flour) and add nice salt fish or banga…”

However in the new world, Grannie Matilda agreed in her simple way that after one time is another and change is inevitable.

Still, she expressly voiced her hope that younger folks must not lose sight of what matters and must also try to be good people and understand that it is the simple things that make the difference; faith, one’s beginnings, hard work, good food and, of course, the inevitability of change.