While most of us are still getting over the celebration of the New Year, one Belize City resident is celebrating her 103rd new year. Gertrude Phillips today turned 103 and Keith Swift was invited to the party.
Keith Swift Reporting,
As the final touches of frosting were being put on the cake, five generations of the Phillips family gathered for a birthday celebration more than a century in the making. The birthday girl is Gertrude Phillips who today turned 103.
Gertrude Phillips,
"I'm happy about it."
The centenarian was in high spirits today as her kids, grandkids, great grandkids and well you get the idea helped celebrate the big day. And there was no shortage of emotions or words for her children who don't see Gertrude as mom but as a blessing.
Evilyn Phillips, Daughter
"Its like a blessing. She is like a prophet; everything she says is there. If she tells you something is going to happen, it happens. I'm really very happy about her birthday today and I hope she lives to see many more."
Gwendolyn Phillips, Daughter
"I'm very happy that she is alive and I hope that I live to see the same."
Albert Phillips, Son
"I came out of the hospital to see my mom. I couldn't stay in there any longer. I am still sick but I said I have to see my mom for her birthday. I don't know how much longer I have left but there is nothing else in this world I have to live for, well beside my two sisters, but I am very happy. I wouldn't have stayed in the hospital and missed this, even if they had held me I wouldn't have stayed because what she has reached, I will never reach. 103 is a gift from above."
And while Gertrude's longevity is motivation for her ailing son, she is a source of pride for her granddaughter Sandra Williams and great granddaughter Vanecia White.
Vanecia White, Great Granddaughter
""Everyone I meet I just tell them that I am going to my grandmother because she is going to be 103. Not everyone gets that gift and I know that this is a wonderful gift that God has given to me. So I really appreciate her being here and I try to make the best of it. I try to take my spare time, or try my best to find spare time to be here with her, because when she is gone it is like a whole part of my life will go so I try to cherish it as much as I could right now."
Sandra Williams, Granddaughter
"I can't stop tell people that my grandmother is turning 103. From like two or three weeks ago I started to get ready to bake her cake because from the time I learnt to make cakes, my niece would say 'I would make a cake for you grandmom and she would no, Sandra will make my cake.' Because she knows I make her cake, that makes something in me feel good because I know I have to bake her cake. Until she decides to leave this earth, that's what I'll do because, making that cake is nothing but, it's a great thing for me just to make her cake."
Vanecia White,
"She means the world to me. She is like a precious stone. You know like something precious, she is more precious than anything you can ever find in this world."
And though she has already turned a century, her family says Gertrude is fairly lucid, she is far-sighted and suffers the expected infirmities of old age.
Evilyn Phillips,
"She talks very much and she remembers things sometimes which I don't remember. She remembers a lot and sometimes she asks me about some things which not even I remember. I don't remember but she remembers."
And today is one day the family hopes Gertrude will remember.
Gertrude Phillips has 4 surviving children along with 31 grandchildren, 126 great grandchildren and 48 great great grandchildren.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
