‘Rose’ keeps war veteran, 98, strong

“It is the love of Rose that keeps me strong and living long.”

This was the reply of 98-year-old war veteran Ventris Milton Bishop, speaking of his second wife Rosetta, when asked how he managed to survive to two years shy of being a centenarian.

Bishop was honoured at a festive family reunion on Father’s Day, yesterday, at the La Horquetta home of one of his daughters.

Born to Mary Bishop in Barbados, Bishop spent most of his early years in East Trinidad with his four brothers and two sisters. All of his siblings are now deceased, one of his sisters having lived to the age of 102.

Although he now has a slight hearing problem, Bishop still remembered his years in the military in the early 1930s when he left Trinidad to serve with the Royal Air Force in World War II and was later commended by the TT government. He recalled being a police officer under British rule and later becoming a soldier with the Trinidad Light Infantry.

After the war, Bishop decided to leave the protective services and opted for the job of a postal officer with the General Post Office delivering mail in parts of Tobago and carrying out “special deliveries” for a well known doctor at the time. A jack-of-all-trades, as his children describe him, Bishop started his own construction company in the 1940s where he performed the duties of owner/manager, mason, carpenter and sometimes electrician. He constructed several homes around the country and was a popular choice for building jobs in his day.

Bishop later became a real estate agent and was quite successful at leasing apartments and homes for rent. He did not only gain financial success in this field but also met his future bride at his workplace, back in the 1960s.

Rosetta Roberts was a young woman searching for an apartment to end her life as a sleep-in housekeeper at a St James boarding house.

A fellow employee directed her to Bishop, whom the friend said was in the business of finding apartments for those in need.

After obtaining the apartment of her choice, Roberts then paid Bishop $5 monthly as rent. “I had no interest in a man 30 years my senior,” Rosetta told Newsday. “It was because he was a real gentleman and very courteous to me, I decided to give the relationship a try,” she said.

The couple later married, a second marriage for Bishop, and have been together for almost 40 years.

His children, Pearl, Yvette, Keith, Prince, Sylvia, Laura, Felicia and Milton, gave him 28 grandchildren, 31 great-grand and two great-great grandchildren.

“Daddy was a hard worker who took good care of his children, showed us how to be business people and to be independent,” said his first daughter, Pearl Bishop-George, who returned to Trinidad from the US for the occasion on Father’s Day. “He was never a gambler, smoker or drinker,” she said.

George recalled her childhood days when her father would make home-made wine for Christmas and never refer to them as wines.

“He would instead give them names like Maracas, Arima and other parts of Trinidad, so that we would not refer to them as alcohol,” she said.

Bishop’s family spent Father’s Day honouring him for his years of dedication and loyalty to them.

“We plan to have a big, bang celebration, should daddy live to see 100 years,” said George.