Can we defy aging?

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Right, Manang Mila, ambulant veggie vendor 75; Cecille, author's wife 63.

Definitely no. But we can delay it. We can grow old gracefully. And actively. Like Milagros Pineda Patayan.

She is in her middle seventies and she is proud of it. It is not really about her age, it's her daily work she enjoys so much - selling vegetables on foot house-to-house in our subdivision and neighboring communities. Manang Mila - manang, a way of addressing a much younger person indeed looks like one, and works like one. What is Manang Mila's secret? Here is her confession.

"I don't eat meat, specially pork. I eat fish and vegetables, and fruits."
"I sleep early - 8 o'clock, and by 4 in the morning I am up and prepare my merchandise."
"I do my rounds in the morning. I attend to domestic work in the afternoon."
"My family is very supportive of what I am doing."
"I don't take medicine. Awa ng Diyos, hindi pa ako naospital." (Thanks God, I have not been hospitalized.)
"Positive palagi ang pananaw ko sa buhay." (My outlook in life is always positive.)

I have known Mila for a long time. The whole subdivision knows if she is in her rounds. You can hear her even a block away. Then one time she "disappeared." Ah, finally she has retired, I said.

Several weeks after, Mila reappeared. Nagbakasyon ako sa Pangasinan (I took a vacation in Pangasinan, her home province), she said joyfully, anticipating any inquiry. And flashed a smile, exuding a happy mood defying her age.~