Mama Robertson celebrates her 100th birthday

After lighting many candles to pray for others over her 100 years, Spiritual Baptist Salome ‘Mama’ Robertson lit the candles on her 100th birthday cake earlier this month.

Since 1918, October 10, when Salome Robertson was born, she has spent most of her days in the community of Rose Hall, and Rose Hall is where, surrounded by six of her children, she celebrated centenary.

Robertson, also know as ‘Miss Coutan’, ‘Cousin Coutan’, ‘Tanty Coutan’, Mrs Robertson, and, among those in her faith, ‘Mother Robertson’, is the daughter of Doc and Marie Stapleton. Herself, she is a mother to eight, the eldest being her daughter Marcia.

Though she has been described by her family as quiet and easy going, the elderly woman has also gained the title of being a cornerstone of her community, and a cornerstone of the Spiritual Baptist community in Rose Hall.

Her faith has been described as unshaken by a daughter, who recalls that she spent, “countless hours on her knees, candle lit, offering marathons of prayers, bringing everyone before the throne of grace.”

Due to an affinity for plants and animals, Robertson apparently leaned towards farming, as her family before her, and has been a farmer continuously over the years.

“Mama easily took to caring of plants and has always had this special love for animals,” her daughter explains, continuing that her mother, “has always been a farmer, even though she made different efforts at being a domestic for quite a few years in Trinidad where she once migrated to join some of her siblings, when the struggle to survive became real tough following the aftermath of the second World War.”
Another love in Robertson’s life is said to be cricket, where she “played as our outstanding all round cricketers, more so as an opening pace bowler.”

However, the love of her life was her late husband, Gerald Robertson, who was not able to reach the milestone with his wife, as he passed away in March, 2015.

Nonetheless, many family members celebrated the occasion with the centenarian, wishing her a happy birthday, “From all those whom you have mothered biologically and otherwise.”