Randall Butisingh, the world’s oldest blogger, will be 97 tomorrow

Randall Butisingh, a person of Indian origin, living in Florida, USA, is the world’s oldest blogger. He believes he is also the oldest Facebook member.

Randall Butisingh was born in Guyana on December 1, 1912. His grandparents had left India as indentured labourers in the latter part of the 19th century “to work in the sugarcane fields of British Guiana for white planters as a backbreaking compulsory task for a pittance.”

He worked as a teacher in Guyana for 45 long years. He is a poet. He was associated with the Hindi Prachar Sabha of Guyana.

Responding to an email from Ohmynews earlier this year, Butisingh gave the following information about his family: “I have 7 children, 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. My oldest great-grandaughter is 21. They all live in the USA, except for 1 daughter and a grandson who live in Guyana, my homeland. I live in Florida, the Sunshine State in the USA, with a daughter and her husband who is a physician.”

The daughter and son-in-law with whom Butisingh is staying in Florida are Muslims. He summed up his religious affiliation in these words last year: "I am not a professed Muslim. I was raised as a Christian from birth by Hindu parents and grew up in the Christian Church, in a village which was predominantly Afro-Guyanese. But eventually I separated from the church as I saw it as exclusive and divisive and I wanted to be involved in all mankind.... I am at present living in the home of my son-in-law and daughter, who are Muslims."

He started blogging on October 21, 2007. He became the world’s oldest blogger when 97-year-old Spanish great-grandmother Maria Amelia Lopez Solino passed away in May this year.

On the second anniversary of his blog, Butisingh wrote: “I may or may not live to see another anniversary. On my last visit to the doctor, I was diagnosed as having a weak heart and will need a pacer, but I have decided against using it. I feel as good as ever. So with the limited time at my disposal, I have to live today as if it was my last, but work as if I will live forever.”

To senior citizens, he gave this advice: “Live a twilight of usefulness.”

Butisingh has been telling the story of his life in an engaging series in his blog which received the Greypow Award for distinguished blogging by an over-80 blogger.