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Charles Gardiner is Essequibo’s newest centenarian
One may conclude that coming from a family which recorded three centenarians, living to see that ripe old age is not only a gift.
And this can be said for Charles Josephat Gardiner, a former policeman and farmer of Noitgedacht, Wakenaam. He recalled that his uncles James and Peter and his great grandmother, whose name he could not have recalled, all lived to reach 100 years.
Uncle Charlie, as he is commonly called, resides at Adventure Village, Essequibo Coast. He needs no assistance with his daily movements. He only has someone who keeps his company during the nights.
Charles Josephat Gardiner
Uncle Charlie detailed his childhood years and how he continues to cope at 100. He recalled being born to James and Lucretia Gardiner.
Uncle Charlie added that he is the last of five, all of whom have predeceased. He remembered attending the Scots School in Wakenaam and completing his primary education there.
Boasting of his love for money, Uncle Charlie explained that as a result of emerging from a poor family, he was forced to look for work.
He said that he was first employed as a labourer with the task of shaping wood to construct homes. After working for fifteen years molding and shaping wood, Uncle Charlie said he worked another fifteen years as a farmer and finally he was recruited as a policeman with the specific designation as an animal inspector.
Uncle Charlie said he worked at all three of the stations at Essequibo, namely Leguan, Wakenaam and on the Essequibo Coast.
However, in 1996, he took up permanent residence on the Essequibo Coast. In 1936, he recalled tying the knot to his late wife Virginia Seales. That union bore seven children, three of whom are alive today.
He described himself as “being very wild” having shared many relationships prior to settling down. He always managed to keep his affairs with multiple women a secret.
“You never tell a woman who and if you are seeing another woman. I was engaged to be married to my wife and during that exact period I was having my son.”
Uncle Charlie who wakes up at 3:00am each day also attends the Airy-Hall Anglican Church. He is still active and does everything on his own but due to his age he has been rendered hard of hearing. His daughter, Betty Ellis, called Joy, said that her father uplifts his pension, cooks, cleans, and reads his bible, without the aid of his spectacles most times.
Ellis said that the entire family is overjoyed to be a part of her father’s 100th birthday celebration, which would take the form of a thanksgiving service, on Friday 19th.
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