May Celtel celebrates 100th birthday in Florida |25 May 2015

May Celtel celebrated her 100th birthday on May 3 in Florida, nearly 14,800 km away from island home of Seychelles
She celebrated this occasion with her children and other family members.

According to the Seychelles News Agency (SNA), Mrs Celtel, who had lived for many years at Les Mamelles, moved to Florida around six years ago to be taken care of by her daughters who live there.
May Celtel was born Vel in Mombasa, Kenya on May 3, 1915 to Seychellois parents. Her father worked at the Mombasa post office at the time.

Mrs Celtel’s granddaughter Nelly Coelho, said her grandmother moved to Seychelles during her teenage years and at the age of 15 she married Seychellois William Celtel, who was to be a boat captain on the 'Revenant' formerly 'Wanetta.'

 Her husband passed away many years ago.
The centenarian had seven children and one of them, a daughter, died in 2014. Her remaining children are scattered across the United Sates of America, Canada and Seychelles where live two of her sons as well as an adopted daughter.
The family also includes 15 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and two great great grandhildren.

“She is very healthy apart from a few hip joint pains. She still eats, drinks, talks, and puts herself to bed with a little hearing problem. She chooses to hear who she would like to hear. Her eyesight is not excellent, but she is able to read and watch TV. She loves her little whiskey at 5pm every day – calls it ‘happy hour’. One of her favorite pastimes is crochet and “scratch cards” (lottery cards). Give her a chance and she has cash on her and if one can take her to the casino, she can spend the whole day on the slots,” Nelly Coelho told the SNA.