The small village of Portela de Messines, parish of SB Messines, municipality of Silves, is currently experiencing a rare moment of longevity for one of its inhabitants. It is Josefa do Carmo Ganhão Mealha, or Zéfinha, as she is affectionately treated, who today celebrates her one hundred and second birthday.
Born in Santa Margarida, parish of Alte, on 11 April 1910, although officially registered on 3 April, ie eight days before the effective date. Another curiosity is related to her christening, which took place immediately after birth, “in extremis”, as it was then said, because family members judged her in danger of life. A situation that today evokes with a loud laugh: "They're all dead and I'm still here, 102 years later!"
His father, Francisco Rodrigues Ganhão, born in Soidos, worked in Minas de Rio Tinto, province of Huelva, later settling in Santa Margarida, where he married Maria do Carmo Palma, a descendant of families with some means. The marriage resulted in eight children, three boys and five girls, one of whom was Josefa.
He learned to read and write in his native village, where he briefly attended school. From that time he recalls: “I learned to write and read almost on my own. I went to school for some time. When they bought soap, it was wrapped in a piece of newspaper and I read it right away. Books I had at home I read them all. I read everything well. I would like to read."
This habit only abandoned him about twenty years ago, when an irreversible process of vision loss began, as until then she had been a frequent visitor to the Mobile Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Now he recognizes that the custom of reading at night (during the day he devoted himself to agricultural tasks), next to the oil lamp, will have greatly reflected in the health of his eyes.
Even so, and despite not seeing it anymore, this does not prevent you from taking a shower and dressing alone, or entering or exiting the bathtub in the same way, or even going to the bathroom without any help from family members.
Although she descends from a family where longevity is frequent, she even “hardly thinks she's so old”, and then says, with some irony: “Now when people ask me how old I am, I say I'm two years old”.
Possessing a prodigious memory and a sharp ear, she maintains a jovial and friendly air, to which she adds an excellent good mood that captivates the visitor. She still loves talking and sharing memories of other times, with detail and vivacity.
We asked him what memories he had of the snows that hit the Algarve in 1945 and 1954, and the answer was quick: “I was already here [Portela de Messines], it rained a lot of snow, both one year and the next. My mother-in-law cried for fear that the roof would fall, a large layer fell, and these were not prepared for the snow. It covered the entire road and only one car passed by, it came very slowly (...). Then it rained and melted. Thank God it never rained again. It has now fallen into Serra da Estrela”.
And the Pneumónica, in 1918? “I remember too. People were fine, fell and died soon. Everything died. I was also very sick. My mother washed me with vinegar, wrapped me in a towel and laid me on top of a large box. The beds were all taken. Only Carolina [sister] never got sick, she wasn't sick. My father used to carry brandy and threw it at us. (…) My brother Inácio bled his blood and it was his luck”.
In Santa Margarida, as in the entire Algarve, entire families died, in one of the darkest periods in our recent history.
He also evokes the difficult times that were then experienced: “At that time there was nothing. Those were times of misery, a lot of misery. May this time never come. But it looks to me like they are working on it. I don't know which governments these are now. They don't do things well the way they should. I still remember the patacos, the penny, the 5 kings, then came the half pennies…”
And nowadays it easily converts euros into escudos and vice versa.
And by the way, what memories do you have of the cyclone (1941)? “Oh, oh… My mother had her birthday that day. I will never forget. The doors all slammed, everything opened. There was a cupboard in the kitchen, in the corner of the house, where there was crockery, that made a beating. We were going to hold the doors. We locked it but opened everything. It was more wind than rain. The wind was Levante, and it uprooted many trees, many olive trees, our land was full of firewood. But we didn't run out of trees. We had firewood for a long time”.
To the oven? “And to the house,” he replied. There were no gas stoves… We stopped! “Ah…at that time it was on the ground. We had a kitchen with a really big chimney breast and we sat around it. My mother had an iron pot that was on the fire all day. We were five sisters. Times that have passed, I miss those times”.
Josefa Mealha got married at the age of 32 to José Cabrita Mealha, a native of Portela de Messines, where she then moved to and where she has remained for 70 years.
The marriage resulted in a daughter, with whom she lives, as well as two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her husband ended up dying very young, after 21 years of happy marriage, but Josefa did not remarry, not following the example of her grandmother who had done it three times.
Almost finished, the inevitable question: what is the secret to reach such a long age? There was no prompting: “The secret is good health and eating well. I liked everything, but today I'm very happy. I really liked gazpacho, but now I don't. A tomato with salt that still tastes. It also combines the pure air of Portela and the good quality of the water in the area.
Josefa Mealha, or rather Zefinha, gets up around 11 am, after having breakfast while still in bed, but if it weren't for the betrayal of her vision, she would still do the housework, take care of the vegetable garden. and would visit the neighborhood more often.
So, when for any reason she is alone (she lives with her daughter, son-in-law and a grandson), she takes the opportunity to sing or talk. And that's what he did before we left:
“Ah Zefinha, ah Zefinha
Zefinha hasn't died yet
Zefinha is still here
Zefinha is me.”
To the birthday girl, but also to all her family members, we wish, on this very special day, good health and a sound and well-deserved round of applause.
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