Last year, on his 104th birthday on April 16th, Jacob Alexander Turner said he wished to live to see the age of 105 and make history to be the third male to attain that age in Antigua and Barbuda. He got his wish, celebrated the milestone and 69 days after that birthday, he passed away peacefully and quietly.
Up to the time of his death, he was cheerful, relatives said yesterday, the day after he died.
The centenarian was still engaging and coherent prior to his death and last year when he celebrated his 104th birthday, he recounted to OBSERVER media that he was first a farmer and then became a fisherman, only retiring at the age of 99.
At the time, he said “Life has been good; the Lord has been good to me. I won’t complain.”
The Seatons, Glanvilles man was said to be very independent and still mobile prior to his death and was not afflicted by any disease or illness.
He was married to Ellen Turner who died at the age of 39 and the couple already had three children, which Jacob Turner raised with the help of relatives.
The oldest male centenarian in Antigua and Barbuda was William Kirwan who died in 2010 at the age of 106, while another, Samuel “Papa Sammy” Smith died in 1982 at the age of 105.