AT 105 years-old Mrs. Doris Clastine Fordyce joked about how she hopes to live to a million years. If she achieves that, she will outlive Methuselah, the man from the biblical times who lived 900 years.

On Tuesday Aunty Doris, as she is fondly called could still sing along to some hymns she grew up hearing and also sang frequently while she was still active in church. She was surrounded by a small number of her relatives as they wished her well and prayed with her on the occasion of her birth anniversary.

The simple ceremony was held at her youngest daughter’s home at Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara. Mrs. Doris raised five children, four girls and one boy. The boy died some 35 years ago while all the girls remain alive. In her early days, she was a house wife and also did some level of domestic planting while her now deceased husband, who was a labourer, also did farming.

To date, the elderly woman who has some difficulty sitting for long periods, does not require any schedule medical check-ups but whenever she is carried for a routine check, relatives said that the doctors would usually relate to them that her health is good and that her heartbeat is like that of a child, very normal.

The woman has approximately 42 grand-children, 109 great-grandchildren and 42 great-great-grandchildren. Family members said that she is also known to be among the founder members of two Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) churches, one a stone’s throw away from where she lives with her daughter and the other at No.42 Village, Berbice.

Asked what advice she wishes to send to those hoping to live to her age, Aunty Doris encourages young people and adults to stay close to God and in all their ways acknowledge him.

On Tuesday, after she received prayers from the SDA Pastor Andre Williams, in observance of her birthday, the pastor also asked her to lay her hands on him as he wanted her to release some blessings from above. Aunty Doris said that she believes that she is now preparing to head to heaven as she is now on the pilgrim of her life.