Saturday, September 20, 2014 
It was obvious that Mrs. Lydia Adeyemi was old but she did not look anything 100 as she sauntered across the room to meet Punch correspondents - Gbenro Adeoye and Tunde Ajaja. In this interested chat, she speaks about her life and what she remembered of the last century. Enjoy...
Many people would wish to clock 100 years like you, how does it feel?
Only God can give the power to live long because it is beyond human power. No man has total control over his life or the power to decide how long he wants to live. It is only what God says over someone’s life that would come to pass. So, I give God the glory because it is beyond me.
Do you still have friends, like age mates that you grew up together with who are also alive?
There is none again, as much as I know; they have all died. I can’t really say if there are still such people of my age in the town where I come from, but in the church that I attend here, the very old have retired to their homes and the ones that still come to church are younger than I am.
Now that you are 100 years old, how long would you like to live?
It depends on what God wants. I’m only waiting for his time. The only thing on my mind is to make heaven.
What fond memories do you have about your growing up?
When we were young, one of the things we looked forward to was celebrating our birthday because our parents used to mark it for us. As our birthdays approached, we would be very happy because our parents used to give us chicken heads, specially. So, it was a day we looked forward to because it was only the celebrant that would eat the head and nobody would contest that with him/her.
We learnt you loved nursing as a profession when you were young. How do you feel that you didn’t become a nurse eventually?I believe God didn’t want me to study Nursing. When I was in Standard three, there was a time I fell ill and I was taken to the hospital. The doctor who attended to me pleaded with my father that he should allow me to stay with him for some time so he could teach me some things about nursing, but my father refused because he thought if I was taken abroad, he might not see me again. I wasn’t even told about it at that time, but later when I found out, I was bitter. It was very painful. When I got married, my brother-in-law offered to teach me but we soon left the area we were in Ibadan and so, he couldn’t teach me. It was after that God told me that the best vocation for me was to be self-employed, like an artisan, so I dropped the idea.
How did you know God spoke to you?
If you have a project or a plan in mind, if God is not in support of it, he will tell you not to do it. In fact, you may not be able to do it regardless of how hard you try. God could speak through a man, but the important thing is that he would let you know the danger in what you planned to do, and you may not know his reason then, but usually, such reasons would become obvious later. If a spirit tells you to do something and you oblige and it turns out to be good, then, that is the spirit of God. It is only an evil spirit that would tell someone to do a bad thing. So, the spirit of God is always talking to us, but we have not been hearing from him, coupled with the fact that we have not been serving God enough.
What have you been doing since you retired?
I retired in 1982. And since then, I have been serving the Lord and relaxing.
With all you have seen in this world, what is your advice to the children of today?
They should serve God, and they will prosper. The children of today now know more than us, but they should learn from those above them and love God with all their heart and He will direct them.
Many people would wish to clock 100 years like you, how does it feel?
Only God can give the power to live long because it is beyond human power. No man has total control over his life or the power to decide how long he wants to live. It is only what God says over someone’s life that would come to pass. So, I give God the glory because it is beyond me.
Do you still have friends, like age mates that you grew up together with who are also alive?
There is none again, as much as I know; they have all died. I can’t really say if there are still such people of my age in the town where I come from, but in the church that I attend here, the very old have retired to their homes and the ones that still come to church are younger than I am.
Now that you are 100 years old, how long would you like to live?
It depends on what God wants. I’m only waiting for his time. The only thing on my mind is to make heaven.
What fond memories do you have about your growing up?
When we were young, one of the things we looked forward to was celebrating our birthday because our parents used to mark it for us. As our birthdays approached, we would be very happy because our parents used to give us chicken heads, specially. So, it was a day we looked forward to because it was only the celebrant that would eat the head and nobody would contest that with him/her.
We learnt you loved nursing as a profession when you were young. How do you feel that you didn’t become a nurse eventually?I believe God didn’t want me to study Nursing. When I was in Standard three, there was a time I fell ill and I was taken to the hospital. The doctor who attended to me pleaded with my father that he should allow me to stay with him for some time so he could teach me some things about nursing, but my father refused because he thought if I was taken abroad, he might not see me again. I wasn’t even told about it at that time, but later when I found out, I was bitter. It was very painful. When I got married, my brother-in-law offered to teach me but we soon left the area we were in Ibadan and so, he couldn’t teach me. It was after that God told me that the best vocation for me was to be self-employed, like an artisan, so I dropped the idea.
How did you know God spoke to you?
If you have a project or a plan in mind, if God is not in support of it, he will tell you not to do it. In fact, you may not be able to do it regardless of how hard you try. God could speak through a man, but the important thing is that he would let you know the danger in what you planned to do, and you may not know his reason then, but usually, such reasons would become obvious later. If a spirit tells you to do something and you oblige and it turns out to be good, then, that is the spirit of God. It is only an evil spirit that would tell someone to do a bad thing. So, the spirit of God is always talking to us, but we have not been hearing from him, coupled with the fact that we have not been serving God enough.
What have you been doing since you retired?
I retired in 1982. And since then, I have been serving the Lord and relaxing.
With all you have seen in this world, what is your advice to the children of today?
They should serve God, and they will prosper. The children of today now know more than us, but they should learn from those above them and love God with all their heart and He will direct them.
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