IT TOOK ME 100 YEARS TO LOOK THIS GOOD!
IT TOOK ME 100 YEARS TO LOOK THIS GOOD!
Tribute to our very own Grace Communion Centenarian : ERIC MATTHEW ST. BERNARD
FEBRUARY 1ST 1918 TO FEBRUARY 1ST 2018
WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE YOU!
PS: MRS. CORINA ST. BERNARD (Seen in third picture on the right below with her husband), is a stunning 91 year old and together they celebrate 35 years of marriage!
CENTENARIAN CELEBRATIONS!
BIOGRAPHY OF MR. ERIC MATTHEW ST. BERNARD
(Special thanks to Mr. Hugh Weekes, for this beautiful article of Mr. St. Bernard, thus allowing us to share in this milestone achievement)
Ecclesiastes 8:15 (NIV)
So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.
On Friday 1st of February 1918 as the First World War was coming to an end, twin boys Matthew and Mathias were born to Charles St. Bernard, and Elizabeth Felix, in the parish of St. Andrew, in the Island Colony of Grenada.
Conditions in Grenada during this period…
The cost of living, always fairly high in Grenada as compared with neighboring colonies, has greatly increased and is still steadily rising. Generally speaking, it may be said that wages and rates of pay have not been augmented to the extent necessarily to meet the changed conditions and depreciated purchasing value of money…. But for the labourer without land and class who have fixed wages and salaries the conditions of living have become arduous in the extreme. In the 1918 budget, the annual salary for an economist was $15.
[Grenada annual report 1918-1919]
Economic conditions were the main driver of people and this brought Charles St. Bernard who was a tailor, back to St. Georges where he was employed in the prisons, with his son Matthew in 1929. Matthew attended the St. Paul’s Anglican school. While Mathias stayed with his mother.
On the 22nd April 1942 Matthew left Grenada on The Island Queen Schooner for Trinidad, at the age of twenty four. His first job was at the American base in Chaguaramas where he stayed until 1954.
In 1955 he joined British paints, this company was sold to Berger and a rebranding took place that saw them changed to Berger Paints in 1970. He was well respected by both management and workers, and was fondly known as “Shoppy” a sobriquet taken from his position as Shop Steward, which he held until his retirement in December 1983.
He got married to Olga Alexander on the 4th April 1958, and that union produced three children, Sandra, Ann-Marie, {deceased} and Keith. {Both Sandra and Keith lives in the U.S.} Olga died in 1977.
He has eight grandchildren, and seven great grand.
The vibrant and energetic Matthew got married again in May 1983 to Corina Lincoln, they now live in Almond Court Morvant.
His twin brother Ulric Mathias, died in 1977.
On Thursday first of February 2018 saw Matthew recording and celebrating his 100th well spent years with his wife Corina and a few family, friends, and neighbors in a quiet and friendly atmosphere at his home.
WORLD HIGHLIGHTS AROUND HIS LIFE:-
oA short 15 years earlier, On December 17 1903, news came through that two brothers had flown a curious air machine for more than a minute. This event marked a revolution in human transportation and was in fact one of human's greatest achievements.
oIn1913, refrigerators for home use were invented.
oOn 25 March 1925, Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion, at Selfridge's Department Store in London.
oFirst programmable computer. The Z1 was created by German Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938. All this took place long before laptop, cell phone, ipad, etc.
The 1901 census showed that the population of the colony was 63,438. In 1917 Theophilus A. Marryshow founded the Representative Government Association (RGA) to agitate for a new and participative constitutional dispensation for the Grenadian people. Partly as a result of Marryshow's lobbying the Wood Commission of 1921–1922 concluded that Grenada was ready for constitutional reform in the form of a 'modified' Crown Colony government. This modification granted Grenadians from 1925 the right to elect 5 of the 15 members of the Legislative Council, on a restricted property franchise enabling the wealthiest 4% of Grenadian adults to vote.[18]In 1928 electricity was installed in St. George's.[14] In 1943 Pearls Airport was opened.[14] On 5 August 1944 the Island Queen schooner disappeared with the loss of all 56 passengers and 11 crew.[14]
Posted 16th February 2018