“Her retirement years are spent in the fumes-filled metropolis but goes home to her hometown up north for periodic visits”
THE 85-year-old head teacher retired 22 years ago, but admits there are times she misses teaching although she gets over the feeling quickly as she occupies herself cleaning the house and gardening she professes to love.
That’s how the mother of three children and grandmother of one beats stress and handles her secret to aging gracefully: “I keep myself busy, I clean the house, make sure the house is spick-and-span, I do gardening and I wash our clothes manually to this day.”
Lily Bassig Villanueva, who sifted through her lesson plans for 35 years after earning her bachelor’s degree in education from the Philippine Normal College in Manila, acknowledges missing “the camaraderie with fellow teachers.”
For two years soon after receiving her college diploma, she taught in Abucay, the oldest town in Bataan, founded in 1585, before returning to her hometown of San Pablo in Isabela, founded in 1646, where she retired as head teacher of the Auitan Elementary School.
It was in Santa Maria where Lily Bassig met Novelieto Fernandez Villanueva of San Manuel, Pangasinan, three months her senior, who became a presidential assistant on community development in 1969 in the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Villanueva eventually became the DILG municipal development officer of San Pablo, Cabagan, Santa Maria, Santo Tomas, and Tumauini, all in Isabela.
The two got married on May 17, 1970. She was widowed in 2007 when she was 68 – but busied herself looking after her children who have all become professionals.
Her retirement years are spent in the fumes-filled metropolis.
But she goes home to her coastal hometown in Isabela for periodic visits, and still ensures she gets eight hours of full night rest every day, waking up with the sunrise at five every morning after the crowing of roosters in the province or when the avenues and boulevards of the city have knocked up.
Like other elderly, she has had health issues.
But she underlines she does not feel any physical pain which she says are only temporary, although she owns up to maintenance medicines for hypertension and high blood sugar.
In an interview with Grinding Grains, she disclosed staying at home mostly “to be with my children and grandchild Chloe Jillian (now 22 years old), and I am active with the senior citizens group in the community.
“I sometimes go out with my old co-teachers to watch movies. But that has stopped since the pandemic” which hit the country in mid March 2020.
The former teacher-now-grandmother, who speaks fluent Ybanag, Ilokano, Tagalog and English, still cooks when her children are not in the kitchen – all in the household can cook – and her diet, which includes vegetables, has not much changed except that now she just eats less.
She does not crave items from food chains in the burgeoning capital but takes a bite only when her children bring home some from the restaurants.
Does she have any regrets she should have done when she was younger?
“Not much,” she says, but recognizes that being social is a mood booster, adding “I am active in the seniors citizen organization in our neighborhood” with cleaning the house and washing clothes as now part of her daily routine.
As an octogenarian, does she go for regular medical checks?
“No. When I don’t feel good, I consult with my nurse-daughter Julie” although she admits suffering a stroke in 2018 from which she has recovered fully.
