News

Dominica continues to boast of the longevity of its citizens as two women has joined the elite group of centenarians.

Anne Laviniere of Fond St. Jean and Mona Lestrade of Morne Rachette celebrated their one hundredth birthday on Saturday.

Ms Laviniere celebrated her day surrounded by family friends with a mass at the Bagatelle Catholic Chapel, with Father Branker John as the main celebrant.

“We gather to say thank you to God the giver of life for Anne. Very often we come to Anne’s house to give her Holy Communion and she makes us laugh a lot. Anne looks very well for her age because she has very good care. As a priest, I go around and see a lot of elderly people and not all of them has good care, which is a shame. Some of them are abused which I very shameful. But Anne, Anne has great care,” Father John stated.

Father John credited Anne’s longevity of life to her strong faith.

“Anne is a woman of faith, a woman who believes; which is something that we underestimate when it comes to longevity. Faith; putting our trust and our faith in God. That does a lot for your health and wellbeing; because if you are a person of faith, a person who believes, a person who trusts God than a lot of things that stress out other people will not stress you out. Because you will understand that everything is in the hands of God.  And ultimately God is control and that is what Anne believes in,” he noted.

Meantime the family and friends of Mona Lestrade also known as ‘Ma Mona’ was pleased to celebrate her one hundredth birthday with her. She started off her day with a thanksgiving mass followed by a get together with family and friends.

Son in law Alvin Lewis, spoke of some of the things Ma Mona did in her earlier days.

“She exercise a lot because there were no vehicles here before so she used to walk to Macoucherie, and walk back. She use to carry water from Batalie all the way up to Morne Rachette. She use to go to the garden almost every day from here to Mon Cacoa. So she exercised a lot,” Mr. Lewis explained.

Dominica currently has twenty five centenarians.