Market vendor Ramraje Ramsawak says she feels blessed to have reached the age of 103 but having outlived her husband and eight of her children she is ready to meet her maker.
She said there is nothing more she wants to do, that she has not done.
“I already have my white funeral dress and white orhni (a head covering worn by Indian women) and if they (family) get me vex I going to buy my box (coffin),” she joked in an interview at her stall at the Southern Wholesale Market, in Debe, on Thursday.
Ramsawak, said to be the oldest market vendor and gardener in TT, became somewhat of a local celebrity after a visit by Agriculture Minister Kazim Hosein, on the eve of International Women’s Day, when her photograph was shared on social media platforms.
She sells bodi, ochro, different varieties of bhaji she plants herself, with some assistance from other gardeners, at the Debe market stall she has occupied for over a decade.
Ramsawak said she has been a market vendor since she was age 20, a tradition passed on by her parents.
She previously sold her vegetables at the Mucurapo Street market, San Fernando.
Most of what she earns as a vendor she gives back to charity.
“My father come Trinidad from India when he was a baby. When he get big he married a Trinidad woman, so we is ‘Chinidad’ children,” she shared her heritage in broken English.
Married at age 12, she bore her husband, who preceded her in death 60 years ago, ten children. She cannot remember how many grand and great-grandchildren she has.
[caption id="attachment_1005394" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Ramraje Ramsawak sells some of her produce at her stall at the Southern Wholesale Market, in Debe on March 9. - Lincoln Holder[/caption]
“Since he gone, I never take up nobody,” she said explaining that she remained single since his death.
While Newsday was interviewing her, several people dropped by her stall to say hello or buy her produce.
Among those were two ladies from Central Trinidad, who, while visiting relatives at nearby Palmiste, made the journey to the market just to meet her.
Speaking candidly about death, Ramsawak said, “I want to go right now. My clothes done make. I heaping up my bhaji money, one cent here, one cent there, to buy my box, so nobody eh go have to buy nothing for my funeral.”
The centenarian lives alone and admitted it is a lonely life.
“I want the Minister to visit me again. I want him to get me some company," she joked.
“I am in this house all day. I get up in the morning, bathe, go in my temple and go to the garden. Before the sun comes out, I am back home in my hammock where I spend the rest of the day.”
“When I am home, I am lonely, but when I come to the market, I am happy. I talk and laugh with everybody.”
Baldath Bisnath, who occupies a stall next to Ramsawak, said she is a priceless gem. He said he lives close to her in Debe and often visit her at her home.
He said she does her own
