Two more Guyanese score unbeaten centuries

Feb 25, 2010 News

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Eldeca Hector and Clifton David are two special Guyanese. They are the latest in the long list of Guyanese centenarians.
Hector achieved the milestone yesterday while David turns 100 today. They both live on the East Coast of Demerara but they never met.

They both came from average families in terms of numbers, were both married twice, and credit the almighty for their longevity. But that is where the similarity ends.
Of course they are of the opposite sex but their differences are so diverse that it would appear as if they are in two different worlds.
Hector was born in the village of Bachelor’s Adventure on the East Coast of Demerara, while David breathed his first breath in the village of Stanleytown, West Bank of Demerara.
Hector had no children and cared for her countless nieces and nephews until they began to return the favour, while David known as ‘Teach’ could be credited with the spread of the David line across the three counties of Guyana.
Hector has outlived both of her husbands, but David is still clinging on to wife number two, 80-year-old Alexandrena, after more than 40 years of marriage.
Yesterday, family and friends treated Hector to a special function in her native Bachelor’s Adventure to celebrate the milestone, but David will have to wait until Sunday for the achievement to be truly celebrated.
But while both of them have retained their wits and could communicate with others, Hector is hearing impaired while David lost his sight completely two years ago.
Yesterday Hector’s family members spoke of her as the loving aunt who was like a mother to dozens of nieces and nephews, especially the ones whose parents had died.
Number four of three brothers and two sisters, Eldeca Hector is the only surviving sibling.
No one in the family doubted that she would live so long.

“Because Dr. Carter told a great nephew that if we care for her she would make like 102; it’s just the pain she would get now and then,” great niece Roxanne Willis told Kaieteur News.According to Willis, as far as she is aware, her great aunt does not suffer from any chronic illness which steps up when old age steps in.
“She always looked after people with major illness and bring them back,” Willis stated.
And she has no favourite among the nieces and nephews she cared for.
Yesterday’s ceremony for her, at the Parbamel Community Centre in her home village of Bachelor’s Adventure, resembled a wedding with the bride (Hector) arriving at the venue in car with its horn blaring to announce her presence.

Not many were surprised that the centenarian exited the car almost unassisted.
Congratulations were the order of the day as she soaked up every moment of the celebration.
Hector grew up working in the backlands of the East Coast of Demerara village, planting rice as a member of the village cooperative society.
Her secret for her long life is, “God. I going to church since I small and I still going till now. Enmore church. I sing in the choir and I singing till now,” she said before she insisted on being taken home.
Over in Golden Grove, Clifton was eager to recall his early days as a teacher.
He boasted of teaching all over Guyana, touching the lives of many Guyanese who turned out to be prominent citizens.

One of them is Malcolm Parris, a former Minister in the PNC government.
“The only children that I have not taught in school are white children. I taught all races,” he stated.
Born at Stanleytown WBD, into a family of eight, David’s love for teaching was nurtured by his parents who he said were very fond of children.
His mother’s name was Clarenda Minerva David nee McDonald while his father was Hubert Theophilus David.
His lineage is not one of long livers although one of his uncles from his mother’s side previously held the record of living the longest at 94 years old.
Now David is by far the new record holder in the family.
“Thanks be to God (that) I live to be the oldest of the Davids,” he boasted.
With his wife sitting in a chair not far away listening intently to the interview, he was a bit hesitant to disclose how many children he had fathered, except to say that he has outlived two of his children.
When asked about his wife he surprised everyone by asking, “which one?”
Both of his wives hailed from the Ancient County.
Being a teacher in his day he said, he had the good fortune of being tutored in the British way, through the College of Preceptors, where one had to learn human psychology as against child psychology as is the case today.
“My training from The College of Perceptors is human psychology. You could have looked at a person and tell exactly what that person is thinking. The training now is only in child psychology, forgetting that they have to deal with humans,” the former teacher said.
He stopped teaching at the age of 70 years old after an uninterrupted stint of 23 years at the Tutorial High School.
His present wife who bore him three of his children described living with him for the past 40 years as just like the average husband and wife relationship.
She never thought that she would have been living to care for a husband who is 100 years old.
She said that she is inspired by her husband’s longevity and is trusting God to spare her life too to reach that milestone too.

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