Live your life


Centenarian Trunilia Paulina Santana holds up the apostolic blessing she received from Pope Francis for her 100th birthday and her years of dedication and service to the Roman Catholic Church.
Centenarian Trunilia Paulina Santana holds up the apostolic blessing she received from Pope Francis for her 100th birthday and her years of dedication and service to the Roman Catholic Church.

Centenarian Trunilia Paulina Santana has no intention of leaving this world any time soon.

“I am glad (to have reached 100 years),” the silver-haired Santana told Sunday Newsday during her recent birthday celebration at the Valencia Community Centre.

“When yuh die, yuh not coming back here. So, why I want to die when yuh not coming back here.”

For the feisty Santana, death would mean not hearing calypso or timeless Christmas jingles–two of her favourite pastimes.

It would also entail being away from her three surviving siblings, Ralph Edwards and Adeline and Vena Ochoa and eight children with whom she shares a close and loving relationship.

Seven of her children–Carol Glodon, Pearl Blackman, June Hilaria and Keith, Clyde, Ozzie and Kathy Santana –were present at the event. Francisco, who lives in the US, was unable to attend.

Santana said she had no regrets.

“I would say I did everything in my young days as I should. I got married. I had my children and my children have their children,” she said, urging young people to be obedient to their parents.

The celebration, which attracted close to 200 relatives and friends, gave hilarious snapshots of Santana’s eventful life.

It captured salient elements of her relationship with her late husband Joseph Santana, children and grandchildren and also highlighted her lifelong devotion to the Roman Catholic church.

In fact, Pope Francis also issued apostolic blessing to Santana both for her years of dedication and service to the church and achieving the milestone.

The blessing was displayed during the celebration, a testament to her unshakeable faith.

It read: I was born a Roman Catholic and I will die one.

Except for diabetes, high blood pressure and diminished mobility (she uses a walker), Santana has no major health challenges and is blessed with amazing recollection and wit.

During a toast, moved by one of her sons, Keith, the centenarian had the audience in stitches as she sang and danced to the music of Timothy Watkins’ (Baron’s) Sweet Soca Man, one of her favourite entertainers.

Born in La Lune, Moruga, the first of ten children, Santana has outlived six of her siblings.

She got married at 21 to Joseph Santana, an “overseer on a big estate” and by her own admission, lived a comfortable life. He died when she was 64.

“I sent my children to school. That was the most important thing and whatever they had, they grow with that. Their father helped them so life was not difficult. All my children got employed and I am happy for that.”

Santana said her children also never went hungry.

“They eat the same thing everybody else eat because we had everything.”

Carol Glodon, Santana’s eldest daughter, attested to her mother’s commitment to family.

In a prepared statement, which was read by one of her nieces, Glodon said: “Our mother never left us, not even for one day. When she and our father had problems, she stuck it out for the sake of the children. And, today, all of her children, never made her embarrassed or ashamed.”

In his remarks, Keith thanked his youngest sister, Kathy, for taking care of their mother at her Valencia home.

Trunilia Paulina Santana with seven of her eight children at her birthday celebration at the Valencia Community Centre.
PHOTOS BY COREY CONNELLY

He said elderly parents always fare better when they are taken care of at the home of a loved one as opposed to being put in a home.

Daughter June, who flew in from US for the celebration, joked that she was the bravest of Santana’s daughters “and the baddest in my family.”

She urged guests, who included High Court judge Justice Malcolm Holdip, to cherish their mothers.

“When a mother dies, families separate so I want everyone to know that they should stick together.”

June said she always made a point of spending time with her mother whenever she visited Trinidad.

Grandson Marlon Mark Glodon also urged the small audience to cherish family members who had lived to such a ripe old age.

Special guest Fr Steve Duncan, who officiates at the Valencia RC Church, recalled he met Santana in July and was touched by her deep devotion and faith in God.

Duncan said Santana would have also experienced many trials along the way.

“I am sure reaching 100 did not happen without the stress because as you and I know life is not a bed of roses. But we also know that how we lay our bed, that is how we are going to lie on it.”

He added: “We know that even when we make our own beds, people come and interfere with it. And certainly, someone like Trunilia would have handled aspects of her life interrupted.

"But, I am sure you will agree with me that God is the God of life and God is the one who would have sustained her to this point.”

Duncan urged the audience to continue to love one another.

“Live good with one another because at the end of the day that is what matters. The essence of Trunilia’s milestone is living well.”

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