– Take it from 100-year-old Ethal Moseley

ETHAL Moseley is now 100 years old. She is well-known as Lucille or ‘Aunty Lu’ and was born on January 19, 1919, at Saxacalli, down in the Essequibo River.
She was taken to Bartica when she was just five years old by her mother, who had gone there to see what jobs she could have picked up to look after ‘Aunty Lu’ and her sibling.
She attended school in Bartica and finished in the fourth standard, after which she took up learning dressmaking; this she continued with all her life. Also, she taught a number of young girls the trade.

Mrs. Moseley feels that young people today are not reading as much as they ought to. She also feels that the cinema in Bartica, which was torn down to become a shop, had helped to provide wholesome entertainment for young people back in the days. “We used to dress up, all the kids, and go to the cinema in our fancy clothes. Now, someone bought the cinema land and made a shop. You ever hear a place without a cinema?”

Mrs. Moseley married Albert Moseley who originated from Berbice. She said she tried to stay away from men, but something about Mr. Moseley (now deceased) stole her heart, and she decided to give marriage a shot although she was already up in years.
“They ain’t come yet; they all gone out,” Mrs. Moseley joked when asked if she had any children. “One time, I was getting twins and I had complications, so that was the beginning and the ending,” she said.

Her sister, who is 104 years old in Canada, had 11 children and Mrs. Moseley said watching her sister’s experiences also drove fear into her.
At the moment, she lives alone in a small wooden house, although many visitors would pop in to see how she’s doing and to offer whatever assistance they could. “I burst my head last week when I fell down, so I have to hold on and hold on until I meet my bed.”

Mrs. Moseley especially gets visitors from the church she has been attending for some 61 years. In fact, she was one of its founders, and the last one remaining to date.
The secret to living long, Mrs. Moseley said, is simply love. “The secret to living long is a tonic; a wonderful tonic called Love. I had a really good husband,” she expressed.
Mrs. Moseley, in offering some advice to younger women, said: “When you marry your husband, no matter what happens in the house, remember, it’s until death do us part.”
Although receiving lots of visitors, she said she is still very lonely. “To be lonely is a crime. Many nights I sit down here and it’s only the radio I listen to,” she said.