Wasnt her 100th,it was the 70th anniversary of her 30th birthday

One Barbadian,however,is not playing along.

Mae Bishop is 101. According to her birth certificate,she will turn 102 on May 16. But with the feistiness and independence that have characterised her long life,she has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that she has lived a century.

Last year,when the consulate asked if consul general,Lennox O Price could make a birthday call to her home in Crown Heights,Brooklyn,her family did not respond. The consulate has put in another request this year,but family members say they are unlikely to grant it,in deference to what Bishops younger daughter called her little idiosyncrasy.

Its vanity, said the daughter,Colga Hylton-Springer,explaining that her mother,who was born in Barbados,had learned a hard lesson in her adopted country. In this society,you are over the hill,and she never felt over the hill.

For Bishops 100th birthday in 2008,the family held a party and allowed the previous consul general,a family friend,to attend. But it decided to respect Bishops sensitivities by sending invitations that referred to the 70th anniversary of her 30th birthday.

Bishop did quick work on the greeting cards she received that mentioned a 100th birthday,tearing out the offending number and leaving the rest of each card intact. Hylton-Springer recalled,her mother turned to a friend and said,I dont know what theyre going to do when Im 100,because theyre making such a big fuss now.

State Senator Eric Adams,presented a proclamation that was careful to specify the 70th anniversary of her 30th birthday. But the Barbadian consul at the time,Jessica Odle-Baril,did not take the same precautions. Her proclamation heralded the 100th. Bishop never read the document. We kind of skirted around that,so she wasnt aware of it, Odle-Baril said.

Yet Hylton-Springer and her sister,Hazel Bishop Alexis,say she has made her position clear. She is still fighting,not resigning herself to others, Hylton-Springer said.