Over the years, we’ve featured a number of 100 year olds on this newscast. Viola Myles recently passed away at 105 and in 1999 we met Agnes Quilter who was 107 years old...and there have been many others who shared the wisdom of their years with us showing compelling wit and remarkable cogency. But, almost without exception, they’ve all been women! And in fact the census shows that the average life expectancy for a man is 72 years, for a woman it’s 76 years. So women live longer than men – and it’s very rare that we hear about a hundred year old man.
But tonight we have one. He is Herbert Gentle, and a male chauvinist might say the reason he’s reached the exceptionally old age of 100 with style is because he has been a bachelor for most of his life. And while that’s what some men might say, I can tell you that Mr. Gentle’s long life probably has more to do with the fact that he is a particular and disciplined man, and one who’s never set foot in a bar. Here’s his fascinating story of wizened old age.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
It is rare to meet a person who has lived a century but today I was afforded that pleasure when I met long time Victoria Street resident Herbert Gentle. On Saturday he turns one hundred.
Herbert Gentle, Turning 100
“Stress free is right because I don’t make anything stress me, nothing. If something comes up I just forget about it.”
But Herbert has not forgotten the time when he was fifteen years old and on his own.
Herbert Gentle,
“My little house could fit right into where we are sitting down here. It was a small house, it could fit right in here.”
Herbert explained to me that he never knew his mother because one year after he was born she died in1909.
Herbert Gentle,
“You in those days they didn’t use to take pictures, they didn’t write things in books so I don’t know nothing, nothing, nothing at all about my mom. All I heard is that my mother died less than a year. I born 1908, she died 1909.”
Herbert was raised by his grandmother. He remembers Ann Smith as a very strict person but one he believes helped him to stay on a straight path when he had to fend for himself.
Herbert Gentle,
“She gave me plenty manners. Oh yes because she could whip very hard. I am glad the way she brought me up and from 15, I have tell you it was hard work. The every day thing; finding something to eat and so on and so on. Thank God I wasn’t lazy.”
Herbert told me he never went clubbing, never drank, never smoked but because he was set in his ways none of the relationships he had lasted. That interesting life also led to a second place finish in the 1934 Cross Country Cycling Classic.
Herbert Gentle,
“I won the race to Corozal and I won back second to Belize with a lot of trouble on the way too. I would have left a time which nobody would ever beat. I was beating them so far.”
Then in 1940 Herbert won the Belize middleweight championship. Today Herbert’s eldest son seventy three year old Norman Gentle arrived from the United States
to celebrate his dad’s one hundredth birthday.
Norman Gentle, Eldest Son
“Cause it is not everyday somebody reach the century in our family. So hey, I am all for it.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
And it looks like this family is blest with longevity, you’re 73 years old. You think you’ll live as long as your dad?
Norman Gentle,
“I think I will get 120. That is what I am pushing for.”
Anselm Gentle, Youngest Son
“My grandmother died at a 101 on my mother’s side. So that is it and we are here until, if he aches I find out why. If he wants to go to the doctor I take him. If he hollers for help I am here, just a phone call away.”
Clinton Gentle, Nephew
“We are planning a 100 birthday bash at the Ex-Servicemen’s Center on Newtown Barracks. It is going to be a very large celebration, the best we can afford to give him.”
Herbert Gentle,
“My son will drop me at I don’t know where, I will spend a couple hours, and then back home.”
Gentle says he has no special recipe for longevity only this…
Herbert Gentle,
“Live a decent honest life. That is important in life, very very important. Decent and honest and that’s it.”
Herbert Gentle officially turns one hundred tomorrow and it will be celebrated at the Ex-Servicemen League.
