All hail, Mrs Laurayne!

As Barbara Phyllis Laurayne (nee Lake) turned 100 years on December 30, it was mostly the same except there were no heels and she walked with the help of a cane, but as usual she was well turned out, back still upright, and grey hair stylishly cut.

But then this lady who was married to the late Norman, a mother of one daughter and three sons, nine grandchildren (one of whom was the very popular entertainer Derek ‘CG’ Silman, now deceased) and 13 great-grandchildren, comes from a centenarian line, as her mother, the late Marie Louise Lake, known to the residents of Belmont as “Granny Lake”, and a fixture in the gallery of No 102 Belmont Circular Road since 1936, was 102-years-old when she passed away on June 5, 1993.

Laurayne retired from her position as the bank’s telephone operator “after many, many years”, she said, “sometime in my 70s because the bank extended my date of retirement.” Now changed to Republic Bank, “Polly” as she was fondly called by her co-workers, still receives invitations to functions. And although she is in relatively good health and her brain is good, she prefers the comfort of home, which for more than 30 years has been with her daughter, Marilyn, (and her late husband Miles Silman), at Feldspar Gardens in Diamond Vale, Diego Martin.

“I lived at 102 Belmont Circular most of my life until my sonin- law decided that the time had come for me to live with Marilyn and himself. I am very happy here. He was very good to me before he passed and my daughter treats me very good – excellent.

I have no complaints.

Sometimes I feel sad about things I do not like in my life but most times am happy,” said Laurayne.

Could be that one of the things which she misses is travelling, one of her pastimes, to places like Las Vegas, Seattle, where her late sister Sue lived, Oregon, Canada, St Thomas and other destinations.

Her brother Desmond is deceased as well.

oments could be caused by the fact that she is no longer able to enjoy one of her favourite methods of exercise, walking from Belmont to the bank on Independence Square and back, also to the grocery and more or less wherever that was within walking distance.

Granddaughter, Stacey, remembered her grandmother having to hide out in a bathroom in one of the downtown arcades as she got caught in the middle of gunfire during the 1990 attempted Muslimeen coup.

“I was walking home and on reaching Frederick Street saw people running, some with guns and took cover until it cleared up,” said Laurayne.

Did that stop this intrepid woman? Not at all, she just continued walking on her way to Belmont when things calmed down.

Says Marilyn: “Mummy eats everything in very small amounts, loves ice tea and all supplements, and ice cream and cake which was last Friday’s celebration.

She reads two papers every day and Newsday happens to be one of them.” As can be seen from the picture taken just about two years ago with great granddaughter Della Marie Silman, “Granny Barbara” is a favourite with her grands and great-grands, especially when one considers that Stacey and husband, Kevin, came from England where they live, specially for the 100th anniversary of her birth; and one remembers the late CG “giving a shout out on his radio programmes to Granny Barbara.”