adminAmanda Ncube, Sunday News Reporter
TRADITIONALLY the script goes like, as one grows old they grow young but for one Old Pumula man who is 110 years old it does not end there but goes on to include growing jealous, in fact, too much of it for his 97-year-old wife such that he sometimes locks her inside the house for fear of her being snatched by other men.
Whatever women’s organisations and proponents of gender-based violence will have to say or do, there is definitely nothing they can do to stop the love defined by the jealousy between the two “love birds” — they seem to be enjoying it.
Interestingly or is it ironically because of old age the centenarian — Mr Nyamtambo Lunga’s vision has blurred so badly. He can no longer see who his sweetheart will be talking to. And when he hears a male voice the jealousy in him tells him his wife Ms Deliwe Ndlovu is going, even when she is talking to their grandchildren.
What he does not want to hear is a male voice talking to his wife. Whether he knows or remembers his wife’s age and that she is long off the dating or cheating market is neither here nor there.
Not much could be obtained from the centenarian because he is no longer coherent in his speech and hardly remembers some of the historical events that happened when he was growing up.
And according to Ms Beauty Lunga, one of his granddaughters her grandfather’s love for his grandmother did not fade, instead it keeps growing as he gets older.
“At first, we were surprised by the way grandfather kept asking where grandmother went each and every time she was out of their room even if she is in the toilet, but now we have noticed that he is still jealous of her, he doesn’t like to see her talking to other men except him,” she said.
She said her grandfather had nine children and four are still alive, 21 grandchildren, 33 great- grandchildren and 13 great-great- grandchildren.
Mr Lunga was born on 26 October 1906 in Mozambique and speaks “Silapalapa” which is a mixture of different languages and is grateful to be alive to witness his grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren being born.
He came to Zimbabwe when he was a young man looking for a job and was later employed at Modern Motors in Bulawayo as a mechanic.
In an interview with Sunday News, Ms Ndlovu (Lunga’s wife) said their diet had played an important part in them reaching that age.
“I think our diet has played an important part in our health because even after we met, we continued eating what we were eating when we were growing up. We ate healthy and never changed our diet so much to include much of the junk food that people eat these days. We eat isijeza, inkobe, umxhanxa and green vegetables,” she said.
Ms Ndlovu added that although they drank they were always too careful of the quantities of alcohol that they took.
She said: “Young people these days should be able to accept and love each other the way they are for example my husband met me drinking and he did not try to stop me, instead he joined me. We grew up drinking but never abused alcohol the way we now see youngsters doing.”
Ms Ndlovu also said that young women should be able to take care of their husbands and make sure they were well fed and dressed.
She said her husband loves being smart and would keep a comb in his pocket always and loves wearing a tie even when he was not going anywhere.
He used to drink but now he no longer drinks due to old age. His favourite meal is isitshwala, fish, tea and spaghetti.
She emphasised the issue of diet and maintaining a single sexual relationship as their key to long life, even narrating how she fought a woman who almost stole her husband from her.
“There was a time he cheated on me with some woman. I fought hard even going to the extent of telling the woman to leave my man. That is as far as I loved him. Men sometimes do silly things but as a woman you have to fight for what you believe and that is how we managed to grow to this age together. There were ups and downs yes, but we remained in love,” she said, adding that the rate of divorces in the country was worrying.
Online Reporter