Next Friday, October 9, my mother — Isabel Malvar Villegas — will turn 100, still in full possession of her senses. In fact, we, her six surviving children (one son died in 1989), must confess that her memory is sharper and her wit quicker than ours. For the benefit of those who want to live long so that they can continue serving God and their fellow men and women until a ripe old age, let me tell you the main secret of her longevity. We just have to consult the Catechism of the Catholic Church and read the section on the Fourth Commandment of God. Quoting from Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16, it states: "Honor your father and mother, that your day may be long in the land which the Lord God gives you." This quotation from the Old Testament is complemented by another in the New Testament, i.e., Ephesians 6:1 -3, "Honor your father and mother," (this is the First Commandment with a promise) "that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth."

I am certain that God has rewarded her with a long life because of the very exemplary way she has loved and honored her parents, even if she hardly knew them. Her father, the famous General Miguel Malvar (the last Filipino General to surrender to the Americans in the Philippine-American War at the end of the 19th Century) died when she was two years old and her mother, Paula Maloles, when she was eleven. But she took to heart one of the last words of her father in his death bed which was to "honor and love your mother." From my earliest childhood memories, I would see her offering Masses and other suffrages on the birth and death anniversaries of her parents and faithfully visiting their graves. The large Malvar clan (my grandfather had eleven children and countless grandchildren and great grandchildren) can attest to the fact that my mother has been most instrumental in honoring all the members of the clan who have left this world by sparing no effort in keeping the Malvar Memorial Cemetery in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, always spic and span at every moment of the year and not only when November 1 is approaching.

Now that she is the only surviving child of her parents, she serves as the bond that unifies the members of the Malvar clan who are scattered far and wide all over the world. Her children have learned from her what it takes to keep peace among different members of an extended family in the midst of the inevitable misunderstandings that tend to divide one faction from another. She is the peacemaker par excellence and tries her best to convince warring groups to forgive and forget. She never loses hope that married couples who have separated may someday be reunited. Of course, she backs up her human efforts with countless hours of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and in the privacy of her room.

Without underestimating the importance of regular medical check ups, supplementary health products like Vitamin C and Calcium, physical exercise and rest, I am convinced that God has rewarded my mother with a long life because of the exemplary manner with which she has honored her father and mother. I write this to encourage all my readers to follow her example. For comments, my e-mail is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph.