Latest update September 8th, 2026 10:25 AM
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Former Uitvlugt Estate cook turns 100!
Amid many trials and tribulations, a still bubbly Monica Cornelia Janniere has recently joined the much-admired group of persons who have managed to conquer the age of 100.
Born on March 2, 1914, Ms. Janniere grew up at De Willem Village, West Coast Demerara. She was the eldest of six siblings.
The centenarian is the mother of seven with 34 grandchildren, 47 great grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.
She currently resides at New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop with her son Horace Fordyce and his wife.
The elderly woman moves around using a wheelchair, but otherwise has no ailment.
Monica Janniere all dolled up for her 100th birthday party
“She doesn’t have diabetes or anything of the sort. She is very much healthy,” her son told Kaieteur News.
Ms. Janniere has a hearing problem and could not interact with this newspaper as efficiently as she might have wanted to, but according to her son, that’s her only complaint.
Fordyce told this newspaper that after his father died, his mother, despite many challenges, worked most of her life as an independent businesswoman.
“She took care of all of the children alone, and they were very well taken care of too! My mother used to bake and sell cakes, bread, cassava bread, casareep and mauby and so on.”
This was after she stopped working as a cook for the overseers and managers of the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate.
“My mother worked very hard. She was always a determined fighter, and she has been through a whole lot in her life.”
Fordyce said that he admired his mother tremendously, as she has always put her children first, especially their education.
“My mother ensured that she educated all of her children. She couldn’t go far in school, but she did her best to ensure that we could. Many of them even went to private schools in Georgetown and so, but I know for a fact that this wasn’t easy for her. Yet she pulled through and did her best.”
The man said that his mother has always taught him and his siblings to be truthful, since ‘honesty is always the best policy’, always insisting that they be polite and respectful to those around them, especially the elders.
“She used to always tell us too that if something does not belong to you, you should not want it.”
Ms. Janniere’s first marriage was not successful, but after a divorce, she met the love of her life, and became pregnant with her first child.
“Her first husband was an organist and at that time, persons like him were people of substance and after he realized that he could become something big, he left her. So she ended up being in a common law relationship.”
The latter and fruitful relationship ended several years later when the man died, leaving her with the responsibility of the children.
That’s when she left her job at the Uitvlugt Estate, and became an eatery vendor. She became well known for her delicious cassava bread and freshly made mauby among other goodies.
Today, having outlived even her youngest sibling, Monica Janniere is still capable of reading an entire novel in less than a week without the use of spectacles. Her family believes that the woman’s longevity can be attributed to her very active lifestyle.
The centenarian continues on a normal diet, always insisting that her daughter-in-law prepares her favourites, cook-up rice and split peas soup.
These were on the menu two Sundays ago when Fordyce and his wife celebrated Ms. Janniere’s 100th birthday party in grand style. In attendance were relatives, members of her Anglican Church and her two best friends who are about ten years younger than she is.
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