Elaine Ollivierre celebrates 106th birthday

Unlike the excitement generated six years ago on the occasion of her 100th birthday, Elaine Everilla Ollivierre spent last Sunday, November 1, quietly among family and friends.

Speaking to the SEARCHILGHT on Wednesday, a few days after the big day, Elaine, who is affectionately known as ‘Mother’, repeated what she told us six years ago, that it is God alone who knows why she is still alive.{{more}}

Elaine is mother to five children, 24 grandchildren, 52 great grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren, which she was able to recall on her own.

“I used to do anything, I used to do my work that I had to do, pick cotton and exercise,” Elaine said of her younger days.

“I can’t do nothing much now,” she, however, added.

Born on November 1, 1909, in Mustique to Venas Harry and Allan Lewis, Elaine, the third of nine children, migrated to mainland St Vincent with her husband Melvin Ollivierre and five children. Sadly, Melvin died in 2004, after 64 years of marriage. He was 89 years old.

Her granddaughter Correen Greaves, with whom she lives at Fair Hall, said Ollivierre is still able to get herself around on mornings.

“She still walks around and would go to the bathroom by herself and sometimes before I get up she would already go and clean herself.”

With only a little hearing loss and and pain in her legs, Elaine has a clean bill of health, according to Greaves.

SEARCHLIGHT joins family and friends in congratulating Elaine on her 106th birthday. (CM)