TODAY, Shirley Edwards, a veteran stalwart of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), celebrates a rare milestone: 60 years as a member of Guyana’s oldest political party.

Edwards, 82, was for several decades a member of the Central Committee of the PPP and served a long time as a parliamentarian in the National Assembly.
She joined the PPP on January 23, 1962, and party sources testify that she served selflessly and consistently for all of her six decades.

A long-time resident of Princes Street,Lodge, Georgetown, Edwards was formally honoured and decorated with a plaque by the PPP’s Central Committee at its 30th Congress at Port Mourant on the Corentyne on August 2, 2013, ‘In recognition of 50 Years of Dedicated and Selfless Service to the Party in the Struggle for Peace, Democracy and Prosperity.’

Edwards only recently proceeded into retirement from active parliamentary and party politics, but friends and relatives say she continues to pay daily attention to political developments through the media and through direct contacts with friends and officials associated with the PPP.

She is also reported by one relative to be “in tune with the times,” utilising both traditional and social media to connect and contact friends and relatives in Guyana and overseas.
A member of her household said, “Shirley reads the newspapers every morning and discusses the political issues of the day, all day with friends on her cellphone, or by WhatsApp…”

A pensioner with occasional medical difficulties associated with ageing, Edwards is a mother of five –two boys and three girls (Elme, Jomo, Judy,Nikki and Tessa) – all of whom are also still active PPP members.

Her daughter Elme has also been an active PPP supporter for three decades and was on December 17, 2016, honoured during the PPP’s 31st Congress at Cotton Field, Essequibo Coast, with an Award of Excellence “In recognition of 25 years of dedicated and selfless service to the party in the struggles for Peace, Democracy and Prosperity for the People of Guyana…”

At 60 years a party member today, Shirley Edwards is observing a record achievement by a woman politician who’s transitioned from the 20th to the 21st Century and retired from active politics with her party again in office, at a time when, as she once told a close friend, “Guyana’s future is buttered with oil and everybody will be taken care of, at last…”