FLATLANDS — Judith Mends, a parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, was born in Grenada on June 21, 1916 — more than 10 years before the invention of television.
At 110 years old, Mends is a supercentenarian and is believed to be the world’s oldest living Grenadian. She has lived through 19 U.S. presidents and saw her home country of Grenada go from being a British colony to an independent nation.
These days, Mends barely speaks above a whisper and is mostly confined to the Flatlands house of her nephew, Dr. Joseph Radix, a dentist, and his wife, retired appellate court judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix, with whom she has lived since 2019.
However, she was at St. Thomas Aquinas Church on June 28 when the church saluted her after Mass and Father Dwayne Davis, the pastor, presented her with a birthday cake. Father Davis and his fellow priests also gave her a special blessing.
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Mends’ Catholic faith is especially important to her. In fact, she said, “It is everything.” And while Mends isn’t able to attend Mass in person every week like she used to, she always tunes in to watch morning Mass on television.
Her nephew, for one, is in awe of her longevity.
“When she got to 100, we kind of figured that was great. But 110? We never thought that was possible,” Radix said. “So, it’s really unbelievable.”
Mends, who spent most of her life in Grenada, still maintains ties to St. Patrick’s, her old church in Carriacou, the second-largest island in Grenada. For many years, she has sent money to the church and encouraged others in her family to do the same. She has also raised money to buy books and school supplies for Grenadian children.
“It’s always been, for her, about the Church, and the charity she has done for other people,” Radix said.
Mends was the oldest in a family of eight children and is the only sibling still alive.
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One of her fondest childhood memories was watching a plane land on the island in the 1920s. Flying is routine now, but 100 years ago, aviation was a novelty.
“I was a girl. So many things go through your mind, ‘How could this be?’ ” she remembered thinking as she watched the plane come out of the sky and make a safe landing.
As an adult, Mends cleaned houses, owned a store, gave piano lessons, organized community events, and spearheaded the construction of a new community center on the island. She also served as a mentor and advisor to young people at St. Patrick Church, where they called her “Auntie.”
Many of her family members lived in the U.S., and she paid frequent visits to the states throughout her life.
When she turned 100 in 2016, she moved to New York to be closer to family. She settled in Jamaica, Queens, and attended Mass at St. Pius X. Three years later, she moved in with Radix and his wife and has been there ever since.
While she said life is good, she laments the fact that old age has left her physically frail.
“I wish I could move around more,” she confessed.
Still, she is grateful for her life and for God’s place in her life: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”
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