ShareThis
by Carmelita Cochingco Ballesteros.
May 16, 2013
As my friend Letty and I sat in her car, waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, a tall and slim woman crossed the street. She didn’t walk; she glided like a fashion model. She didn’t half-run like the other pedestrians; she glided like a butterfly. She didn’t rush like other people; she glided gracefully like a kite on a bright and breezy day.
“That’s my Nana Tonya!” Letty exclaimed, then pulled over, and got out of her car. She ran after the tall and slim woman who had crossed the street and had been lost in the crowd. Nana Tonya is Letty’s aunt.
After about 10 minutes, Letty came back and told me that Nana Tonya would join us for breakfast at her Tata Nito’s house the next morning. It was February 2012. Letty and I were in Cabanatuan City making arrangements for her 60th birthday party. Her uncle, Tata Nito, had offered his home for our overnight stay.
I woke up to the garlic-rich aroma of fried pork longanisa – a home-grown sausage specialty in Cabanatuan City. Cheerfully, Letty and I joined Tata Nito and family at their happy breakfast table.
Soon, a lady in a lavender floral blouse, a purple skirt, a lilac headband, dangling gold earrings, red lipstick, and a radiant smile took the vacant seat right beside me. It was Nana Tonya.
After some small talk, I asked, “How old are you, Nana Tonya?”
“Ninety-nine,” she said with a naughty twinkle in her eyes.
“When were you born?” I probed. I was a bit skeptical. Maybe she made a mistake. Maybe I heard her wrong.
“May 4, 1913,” she replied without batting an eyelash.
“So you’ll be a hundred years old next year!” I blurted out.
… And so on May 4, 2013, Letty and I met up with her extended family members in Cabanatuan City to celebrate Nana Tonya’s 100th birthday.
It’s my first time ever to attend a centenarian’s birthday bash so I took advantage of the rare opportunity to interview some of Nana Tonya’s close relatives. I am amazed that at 100, Nana Tonya’s as lucid as Einstein and as witty in repartee as Ellen DeGeneres. What’s her secret? What does it take to live up to a century?
Nana Tonya with Juan, 87, youngest brother, and nephew Manuel.
Some Background. Born and raised in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija on May 4, 1913, Nana Tonya is the third of nine children: Salud, Ambrocio (Letty’s father), Antonia, Felisa, Jose, Arturo, Virginia, Teofila, and Juan (Tata Nito). Nana Tonya has two living siblings, Virginia and Juan.
After getting married, Nana Tonya moved to Talavera, Nueva Ecija in 1936. She has lived in Talavera ever since. In fact, she knows my grandparents, uncles, and aunts who are natives of Talavera.
Nana Tonya’s husband died during the Second World War. She never re-married although she could have. She’s got the bearing and fashion sense of a beauty queen! She raised her three children all by herself.
Like Pilar, the main character in the novel Mag-inang Mahirap by Valeriano Hernandez-Peña, Nana Tonya provided for her family through an itinerant buy-and-sell business. She earned more than enough and she was generous with everyone.
Secret No. 1. Nieces, nephews, and grandchildren would help out in the buy-and-sell business whenever she needed them, or whenever they needed her. She has always been hard-working, thrifty, cheerful, and kind.
Manuel, a nephew, confided that he left home for some reason at age 12. Nana Tonya took him under her wings. No questions asked. No ifs, no buts. She taught him this and that and he learned many valuable lessons. Most of all, he learned from her the meaning of unconditional love.
Secret No. 2. Tata Nito, 87, the youngest and only living brother of Nana Tonya, confirmed that she is hard-working, disciplined, thrifty, and single-minded about making money through self-employment. She never retired from her buy-and-sell business. Thus, she has been active physically and mentally.
Secret No. 3. Zenaida B. Tanjoco-Bautista, 70, is the youngest of Nana Tonya’s three children. Zenaida has six children, 22 grandchildren, and seven great, grandchildren. She thinks that being a vegetarian is one of the reasons that her mother has lived to a 100.
Secret No. 4. In addition, Zenaida said that Nana Tonya gets plenty of exercise by walking around the community as the one-woman Chief Executive Officer, Procurement Officer, Marketing Director, Distribution Manager, and Collection Department of her buy-and-sell business. She gets plenty of sleep, of course. She sleeps soundly like a well baby.
An Accident. Nana Tonya would go to Divisoria to buy blankets and ready-made apparel and would resell them to office employees.
But Nana Tonya slipped and fell down while shopping in Divisoria in November 2012,. Her left thigh joint had been badly fractured.
So Nana Tonya has been home-bound since November 2012. The doctors who have seen her so far say that surgery is out of the question given her age. A grandchild who’s serving as her primary caregiver says that her grandmother complains of extreme pain.
But during the party, Nana Tonya didn’t show any trace of pain at all. If she were competing in the Miss Universe Beauty Contest, she would at least receive the Miss Friendship Award or Close-up Smile Award.
Still Running the Race. Centenarians are fighters. Nana Tonya could have opted out of a birthday party, but she didn’t. She could have moaned in a corner, but she greeted everyone with her radiant smile. She could have complained of her pains and sufferings and misfortunes, but she spoke of happiness, gratitude, and faith.