Mandaue’s 106-year-old grandma; hardworking, disciplinarian
THE oldest Mandauehanon woman turned 106 years old yesterday.
Clad in a brown dress, Olympia ‘Impyang ‘ Judilla celebrated her birthday with her only child, 76-year-old Lucia Morpos, six grandchildren and ten great grand children.
Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and wife Sarah sent a birthday cake and promised to give her recogntion by City Hall.
Olympia still has clear eyesight but has hearing problems.
Born on Sept. 17, 1906, Judilla grew up with her aunt in zone Kalbasa in barangay Paknaan.
Olympia chose to live with her aunt since her parents separated when she was 10 years old.
Olympia late became a single mother and supported her daughter by ploughng sugarcane and corn fields.
Lucia told Cebu Daily News her mother grew up a hard working person and taught her to be the same.
“Iya kong gitambagan ug gitudloan nga dili jud ko muhonong ug trabaho kay dili pud kono ta muhunong ug kaon,” her 76-year-old daughter said.
(She taught me to work hard and told me not to stop working because one doesn’t stop eating.)
While she didn’t get formal schooling, Olympia memorized the Ten Commandments, the seven sacraments of the Catholic church, the mysteries of the Holy Rosary and how to pray the Angelus.
These she can recite in Spanish and Cebuano.
Lucia recalled that when her mother turned 101, Olympia started to forget the names of her children and grandchildren, an expected decline in memory due to advanced age.
Lucia said her mother would share her sacrifices and problems but would never give up when faced with adversity.
“She had many suitors but she decided not to get married out of fear that her husband would not accept me,” Lucia said in Cebuano.
Sometimes, when Olympia needs help, she would ask her daughter to call her son, who is a police officer in Mandaue, Insp. Ramil Morpos.
Barangay Paknaan youth leader Clark Dale Morpos, Sanguniang Kabataan chairman, is Olympia’s eldest great grandson of Olympia.
He said he never forgot how “Lola Limpia” would beat him after he climbed a tree against her wishes.
Insp. Morpos, said that his grandmother was a disciplinarian and a devout Catholic. As a a child, the police officer remembered praying with her on their knees in front of the altar before going to bed.
If his lola caught them coming home late, the children would be made to pray over and over again.
The Mandaue City police officer, the fifth grandchild, credits his grandmother’s disciplinarian ways for his present career as a police officer. /Jucell Marie P. Cuyos, Correspondent
