UNDER THE SHADE TREE
We went to Paredonnes which is on the other side of the mountain.It takes about an hour by car to get there. Twice daily a bus goes up to Paredonnes and then down again.
My wife was born there. She lived on a small ranch with her brothers and sisters and of course her mother. She never saw her father. He was killed by bandits.He was the paymaster for a mining company. One day when he was delivering the payroll riding his horse he was robbed and killed.
My wife was like a surrogate mother to her younger brothers and sisters. She cleaned garbanzo beans in Sahuayo about ten miles away for one dollar a kilo. In those days there were no roads.She rode her horse,Colorado,into town.
Last week my wife wanted to visit her Godmother,Josefa. The woman was the sister to my wife's father. We asked at my wife's cousins ranch about how the old woman was doing.
"Oh,she's doing fine,"said her cousin."She goes to Communion every Sunday."
We asked directions to her house. A gentleman wearing a tejana was walking along the rode where we thought she still lived.We stopped the car to ask him where Josefa lived.He broke out with a big smile.
"Oh si,she lives around the turn in the road."
The house around the turn was receded far back. There was a narrow dirt road to the entrance. It was very quiet and sunny. You could hear the birds chirping. Someone in front was playing ranchera music,but not too loudly. We walked to towards the door. There was a large avocado tree next to the porch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement. I was startled.It was like an animal had moved,but it was the figure of an old woman. She was wearing an apron and shawl. It was Josefa.
The old woman was not afraid. She smiled at us. It was apparent she she had lost her teeth a long time ago.
"Me conoces?" asked my wife.
The old woman shook her head "no" still smiling.
"Soy Maria Luisa Madrigal. The daughter of your brother Luis. You are my Godmother."
Josefa was still smiling. She didn't remember my wife too much. It had been almost 50 years.
Josefa invited us into her house. She lived alone. The man playing the music in front was her grandson. He never came out of his house. As Josefa got up from under the shade tree we went to steady her. She arose and began walking to her door. I didn't see a cane.We moved away from her.
I asked her when she was born.
"En cero uno,"she replied.
I asked my wife to ask her again.
"Si, mil novecientos uno,"she said again.
"My God,"I gasped at my wife."She's a hundred and nine years old."
"Oh si,"laughed my wife."My father was 70 when he marry my mother."(her mother was only 18).
"She could be the oldest person in the world,"I said.
The old woman asked us if we were hungry. She told us she ate tortillas with salt and frijoles every day. She told us she never drank alcohol. I asked her what was her secret for longevity. She said she didn't know. I asked her if she remembered the revolution. She said that she ran to the forest to escape from the revolutionarios. She said she was only a girl. A "chiquita." She said one of them would have grabbed her and taken her off to marry him.
Josefa rocked a little when she talked. She said she didn't take any medicines and had no pains.
"Only hunger pains,"she said in Spanish laughing.
My wife and I said goodby. My wife gave her 100 pesos.(about ten dollars).Looking back as I walked to the car I saw Josefa putting the money in a tiny purse that she had removed from under her apron. She looked at the note very closely. She closed the purse and put it under her apron again. Josefa then walked back under the shade of the avocado tree.
I started the car. I felt numb. She must have done something right I thought. I wiped the tears from my eyes.
(But to be honest, I'm glad they are unhappy 
)
DD
