Parazadee Mahabeer called Paro of New Amsterdam was twenty years old when she started selling fish in New Amsterdam.
Now at seventy years of age and counting she is still on the job and has no regrets.
The grandmother of six recently disclosed that she started the business in the early nineteen seventies in support of her husband Shakir Khubir who was a fisherman.
“He would go out on the fishing boat catch the fish bring them to the shore hand them over to me and I would sell them at the New Amsterdam market. “
She soon developed a proficiency for gutting, boning, filleting, displaying and selling her products.
The monies obtained helped the couple to get by and to raise three children.
But in the course of time herself and her husband became estranged and she decided to continue to ply her trade in his absence so that her three children could continue to strive.
Her husband died twenty one years ago.
Her three children who she raised as a single parent are now independent and self sustaining.
Despite the hard ships and the vicissitudes of her life, Paro still has a pleasant twinkle in her eyes when she smiles.
At seventy, she has no major health issues.
She said: “ I am a fish vendor. This is my life.. I don’t even think about retiring . I just think about selling today, the next day and the next for as long as I can ”
