Dul­cie Bho­lai reached the in­cred­i­ble mile­stone of 100 years on March 28. Born in Long­denville, Bho­lai’s jour­ney stands as a shin­ing ex­am­ple of strength, de­vo­tion, and the en­dur­ing pow­er of faith and fam­i­ly.

Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Don­na Cox pre­sent­ed Bho­lai with the com­mem­o­ra­tive cen­te­nar­i­an medal dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny sur­round­ed by mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions of her fam­i­ly, the min­istry said in a re­lease.

“Ms Bho­lai’s re­mark­able jour­ney over the past cen­tu­ry is a tes­ta­ment to the strength of per­se­ver­ance, the re­silience found in both joy and ad­ver­si­ty, and the un­wa­ver­ing love of fam­i­ly,” Min­is­ter Cox stat­ed.

Bho­lai en­tered her birth­day cel­e­bra­tion clap­ping and singing “Hap­py Birth­day to Dul­cie.” She fond­ly re­called her Long­denville child­hood, where the close-knit com­mu­ni­ty meant every neigh­bour was re­spect­ful­ly called “Un­cle” or “Tan­ty.”

Her ed­u­ca­tion be­gan at Long­denville Gov­ern­ment School and con­tin­ued at St Joseph’s Con­vent, where she de­vel­oped the de­ter­mi­na­tion that would car­ry her through life’s chal­lenges. As both a cashier and seam­stress, she worked tire­less­ly to sup­port her fam­i­ly, even through the heart-break­ing loss of her first hus­band and daugh­ter.

When asked about her se­cret to reach­ing 100 years, Bho­lai cred­it­ed dai­ly prayer, par­tic­u­lar­ly her cher­ished “Hail Mary” and “Om Namah Shiv­aya.”

Her ad­vice to younger gen­er­a­tions re­flects her life­long wis­dom: “If you have noth­ing good to say, say noth­ing.”

Among her most trea­sured mem­o­ries are her fa­ther prepar­ing spe­cial Chi­nese meals and her moth­er teach­ing her to pray af­ter a child­hood ac­ci­dent. To­day, Bho­lai’s lega­cy in­cludes 11 grand­chil­dren, 14 great-grand­chil­dren, and one great-great-grand­child, a liv­ing tes­ta­ment to her en­dur­ing love and strength.

Through the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme, the min­istry ho­n­ours ex­tra­or­di­nary cit­i­zens like Bho­lai, whose cen­tu­ry of life em­bod­ies the very best of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s spir­it. Her sto­ry of qui­et courage, abid­ing faith, and fam­i­ly de­vo­tion serves as an in­spi­ra­tion to all. The ham­pers and birth­day cake pre­sent­ed to Bho­lai were spon­sored by the Na­tion­al Flour Mills and the Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny.

To reg­is­ter for the Na­tion­al Cen­te­nar­i­an Pro­gramme, vis­it the min­istry’s web­site at www.so­cial.gov.tt to com­plete the on­line form or print a down­load­able form for com­ple­tion. For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing at 623 – 2608, Ext. 2001 to 2009, or 800-OPIC (6742).