‘This is a special occasion’: GG celebrates with newest centenarian

Barbados’ newest centenarian Florence Matilda Mason hit the big 100 recently and was celebrated at her Bayfield, St Philip home on Saturday.

Surrounded by family and friends, Mason was visited by the Governor General Dame Sandra Mason.

Mason was born at East Point and moved to Bayfield at the age of 18. At age 21, she got married to Joseph Mason, now deceased. She had 14 children.

“She was very strict. Up to today, I cannot swim because she would not allow me to go to the sea,” said Ruphene Clarke, Mason’s fifth child.

Clarke said her mother is a lover of soup and Cou-Cou and steam fish.

Most of all she loves sea egg, Clarke said.

“She did anything that she could put her hands to,” her daughter added.

Dame Sandra said she grew up in the area where the other Masons lived.

“This is a special occasion,” the Governor-general said.

“[The Masons] were fish people. We lived in Mason Town but we were a proud people, we were a happy people, we were a healthy people and we all loved each other.” (MR)