Grandma to sing her way to 100th birthday

LOLA Narcisa Balmonte, 99, can still sing her heart out, in English, Spanish and Pangasinan languages. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

BANI, Pangasinan—Lola Narcisa Balmonte is turning 100 years old in October and she will celebrate her birthday doing what she loves to do—sing.

Balmonte still sings in flawless English, Spanish and Pangasinan—usually to herself at night.

“She sings nonstop, so we turn off the light and urge her to sleep. But she would often answer back that the dark won’t bother her because she memorized the lyrics,” says Francisca, Balmonte’s daughter-in-law.

Born on Oct. 16, 1913, Balmonte is one of 87 nonagenarians from this western farming town. She is mother of seven children, grandmother to 34, great grandmother to 89 and great great grandmother to more than 100.

She belongs to a small group of people born in 1913, among them Candido Cabatuan-Botado (Aug. 29), Maria Dolores Petalver Osorio (Sept. 13), and Eugenia Bernas Aquino (Nov. 15).

Jos Eugenio, a local government employee, says Bani is also home to  Florencia Rodriguez, 102, of Tugui Norte who was born on May 10, 1910; Juan Queliza, 101, of Luac village who was born on June 24, 1912; and Isabel Ochotorena, 101, of Poblacion who was born Oct. 24, 1912.

Mayor Marcelo Navarro and the local government honored the town’s senior residents, gifting the 99-year-olds with blankets and soft pillows and treating them to a party in December last year, Eugenio says.

But Balmonte stands out because of her musical talent. She learned to play the guitar and banduria, or lute, at an early age, and then shared her newfound skill with her younger brother Narciso, now 87.

Narciso says he played for his sister when they performed at dances in the village, an activity Balmonte still recalls vividly even when she forgets many other things, among them the names of her children.

“I can hardly see. I can hardly hear,” says Balmonte, who finished the third grade.

Dr. Leonard Carbonell, Dagupan City health officer, says Balmonte’s memory is well documented among people her age. “As you grow old, the memories of the past, especially [activities] they repeated like singing, are intact because they are stored permanently in young brain cells. But usually, they forget recent activities like what they ate for breakfast or what happened a month ago, because the ability of the cells to store knowledge could have declined,” he says.

For Balmonte’s family, however, the best of Lola Narcisa’s past always comes back to entertain them, each time she sings herself to sleep.