By Jenelle WillabusThere is the saying that one is as young as he or she feels and this is definitely the case for Ms. Viola Shaw who is celebrating her 100th birth anniversary today.Guyana’s newest centenarian has a memory to marvel about and still does almost everything for herself as she says she has been ‘working like a horse’ all her life. When asked what her secret to longevity was, ‘Aunty Viola’ replied in her most stern tone “hard work”.Guyana’s newest centenarian Viola Shaw giving some advice to Kaieteur News’ Editor in Chief Adam Harris.Recapping a little on her life’s story Aunty Viola said she was born in New Amsterdam, Berbice, on April 17,Cheap Jerseys From China, 1913,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, but her mother died when she was just two years-old leaving her and her sister with their father, Joe Bennett.“My father sent me to live with a couple in Georgetown and I was forced to work hard. I never had play days… not even in school; all I did was work and work. When school was over I had to run home to do work.”She recalls being “awakened by the gun at 5 in the morning and going to bed with the gun at 8 every night”.Aunty Viola recalled many days after being dressed for school having been made to turn back after greeting the milkman to scald milk and as a result being late for school.“My teacher never believe when I tell her why I was late for school until our neighbour told her. I can also remember having to go around in people’s yard to collect vegetable peel and then having to chip it up to feed to the sheep.”Aunty Viola said although the couple she lived with had a daughter of their own, they acted as if she was the only child in the house as she was made to do all the chores.She said while many knew of her plight very few spoke up for her.“One day ‘mother’ sent me to the market with money and a big basket and after I finish shopping,Cheap Jerseys From China, I went to ‘father’ work place and a man saw me and I asked him to help take the basket off and he called ‘father’ and asked if I was his daughter and he said yes and the man told him she can’t be your daughter or else you wouldn’t have her doing this,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys,”.Aunty Viola said the man made her ‘father’ fetch the groceries home and soon after someone else reported back to her biological father of the treatment which was meted out to her. Soon her father decided that it was time for him to collect back his daughter which he did.But by then Aunty Viola said she had grown accustomed to working hard and it worked in her favour as an adult. She went on to the working world and eventually got married to Malcolm Shaw, however, no offspring came from that union. Aunty Viola did take care of many of her nieces and nephews as her own.Today she spends her days at the Holy Family Homestead Senior Citizens home where she pretty much takes care of herself. Given the way she was brought up, not allowed to have friends, Aunty Viola said she would rather read a book or do some knitting,Cheap China Jerseys, cooking and fellowshipping at St. Sidwell’s Anglican Church. Persons close to Aunty Viola boast of her cooking as she enjoys preparing her favorite coo-coo, cook-up and cow heel soup. At her age, Aunty Viola still washes for herself,Wholesale NHL Jerseys, something she said she learnt to do well from her father.