Millicent Yearwood (second from right, seated), surrounded by family members receiving a gift from members of the National Committee on Ageing, while National Assistance Board Chairman, Rev Dr. David Durant (centre), and President of the Alzheimers Association, Pamela Brereton look on.
Barbados gains new supercentenarian
Millicent Yearwood became Barbados’ third supercentenarian as she celebrated her 110th birthday yesterday.
Speaking during the birthday celebrations of Yearwood, which took place at her residence in St. James yesterday morning, the President of the National Ageing Committee, Sylvester Niles, expressed that the committee planned to do everything in its power to ensure that Yearwood’s name would be recorded in the Department of Gerontology in Los Angeles, California. He explained that they will have to send the necessary information through the Ministry of Social Care, but assured that they will definitely get the birthday girl’s name recorded. Yearwood’s house was filled with friends and family who all gathered to wish her a happy birthday and celebrate this milestone in life with her.
“I know that the Barbados Museum and Historical Society today placed her image and name on the World Wide Web, so we thank them very much for that,” Niles said.
Given the fact that her mother gave her a little scare earlier this year, Yearwood’s only daughter, and caregiver, Mavis Small-Raper, expressed that she was extremely thankful that her mother was able to reach this milestone in life. Small-Raper noted that despite having to force her mother to drink water and having to shout a little to communicate with her, she was generally in good health with perfect eyesight.
She revealed that her mother used to spend her early days in the plantation and then later on as a hawker, and noted that now she spent her days sleeping and her nights talking and singing.
Niles went on to reveal that Barbados currently had 120 centenarians alive and added that they were planning to have a Hall of Fame to honour all past and present centenarians. He explained that this was going to be an ongoing event as they currently had around 600 centenarians to honour. Noting that the first registered number of centenarians was recorded in 1911, Niles mentioned that they were going to begin their acknowledgement of the centenarians from that year.