Senior Multimedia Reporter
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At 100, Eloise Seales still treasures the night she found the love of her life.
As she celebrated her 100th birthday on Tuesday surrounded by children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Seales told Guardian Media that one memory stood out above all the others.
Smiling and dancing with her family, Seales recalled the chance encounter that led to her marrying her husband, Leonard Seales, a handsome soldier, 83 years ago.
Speaking at San Fernando City Hall, where relatives gathered to mark the milestone, Seales smiled as she recounted how a routine walk home from a church meeting changed the course of her life forever.
She was just 17 years old.
Recalling the story, Seales said a woman she had befriended had encouraged her to call out whenever she passed the house at night.
“One night I called out as usual, but she wasn’t home,” Seales said. “Instead, a young gentleman came out and said his mother wasn’t there.”
The young man, a soldier, was heading out but decided instead to accompany the teenager on her walk home.
“He took me home, but he didn’t know exactly where I lived,” she said with a laugh.
A few days later, he returned, knocked on the family’s door and introduced himself. Seales introduced him to her parents and her many younger siblings.
Although he was later posted away with the military, he never forgot her.
By Christmas, he returned with his mother to visit the family. In January, he formally wrote to her parents asking for permission to marry her.
“In those days, once you brought a gentleman home, he had to stick to his word,” Seales said. “My grandfather had been a policeman.”
True to his promise, the couple married in 1944, when she turned 18.
Life was simple, she said, but filled with commitment and hard work. Her husband was stationed at Piarco and often rode his bicycle long distances to visit home.
“People were never lazy like now,” she said. “The young people today are very lazy.”
Although she lost Leonard in 1983, Seales said she never forgot his love.
Looking back over a century, Seales believes one of the biggest differences between then and now was the respect people showed each other.
“When your grandparents told you something, that was it. Children respected their elders,” she said.
The eldest daughter in a family of nine, Seales has watched her family grow across four generations.
She is now the proud matriarch of 17 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Despite reaching the remarkable milestone, she said she remains grateful for good health. Apart from diabetes, which developed only in recent years, she has avoided major illnesses.
Asked her secret to longevity, Seales said her day begins long before sunrise.
“I get up around three o’clock every morning,” she said. “I bathe, then I have my meditation and I do my exercises.”
Raised in the Catholic faith, Seales credits prayer and her relationship with God for sustaining her throughout life.
Growing up during the Second World War, she remembers food shortages affecting many families, but her father ensured they never went hungry.
“He had land where he planted food, and we always had fowls, ducks and hens,” she said.
As family members gathered to celebrate her century of life, Seales described the occasion as feeling much like Christmas, her favourite time of year.
“I used to prepare for Christmas from September,” she said, recalling the cakes she baked for weddings and special occasions.
“This hundredth birthday is just like preparing for Christmas.”
Asked what she wished for after reaching such an extraordinary milestone, Seales’ answer was simple.
“I just want to live peacefully and praise my God,” she said. “He is the Creator. When He is ready for me, He will know.”
Moments later, surrounded by generations of descendants singing “Happy Birthday,” Seales danced and smiled, still holding close the memories of the young soldier who walked her home one evening and changed her life forever.
