Former public servant turns 105

Irving Joseph, seated centre, celebrates his 105th birthday with his wife Joanne Joseph together with children and grandchildren at his Arima home 

At 105-years-old, Irving Joseph’s advice on living a long, productive, and fulfilling life includes having humility, caring for one’s family, and making one’s children a priority.
With a royal blue tuxedo, white shirt and grey tie designed two-layered cake, representative of Joseph’s long-time common attire and favourite colour, a small family gathering at his Arima home, was held in honour of his 105th birthday, which he celebrated on June 17.
Now visually impaired for the past two years, Joseph would have liked to see his cake, which was described to him by his wife Joanne 60, and five of his six children who made it to the milestone celebration. Nevertheless, the old chap who donned a long-sleeved brown shirt was just in his glee to be still around.
Describing the personality of her father, Josanne Joseph, his youngest, said he was always a very easy going individual, very simple and quiet.
She also recalls his style of discipline: “He would not just tell you not to do something. Correction usually came with a long rigmarole story and then he would leave you to think about it so that you can do the right thing.”
His method worked as Josanne said more often than not because he was so sweet about it, they had no choice but to do the right thing.
The old adage—“Friends would carry you but they would never bring you back,” was also a lesson well instilled.
Josanne shared with Guardian Media some of her fondest memories of her father in his former years like his Sunday evening ritual of shoe shining or the 1930s calypso tunes he would whistle while weeding the yard—calypsoes Josanne said none of his children knew. There were also many stories Joseph would tell of cutting bush to make roads.
Joseph, a former oiler at the Ministry of Works and Transport, shares a unique relationship with his wife though the 45-year age difference. In a telephone interview with Josanne, she said she believed her parents’ relationship was perfect.
“They have a very good understanding, my mother would always be the one to ‘front’ as the boss, but they are very old school. Dad would give her that leeway, but my dad always had the last say,” she said.
Josanne noted another great thing about their relationship was their ability to resolve their differences without arguments.
“I have never seen my parents argued. We would know something was up because mom would say she’s not doing this or that, but then, she would still make sure he had his meals and so on,” she said.
Of Joseph’s experience living through the global pandemic and the many disruptions in social life it has caused, the ground provision lover declared he had never heard of such a thing in his born life.
Making it to 105 is a gift from God for Joseph’s family, Josanne said: “For me, that is my dad, I do not ever want him to go anywhere, but my mom is the one who fusses about that time which she says will eventually come.”
Source: The Guardian, June 2020