–
The garden is splendid. Rosa María Schaller, who turned 107 yesterday, takes care of him every day. Longevity is a mystery. But this woman who was born in Augsburg in 1913 and who arrived in Xàbia when she was 83 years old feels great to stay active, to go out every day to the garden of her house. And he has seen it reborn. The fire that devastated La Granadella in September 2016 burned it down. Schaller, like hundreds of residents of Xàbia, had to leave their home in a hurry that day with his family. The fire entered the plot. The house was miraculously saved.
It is not the only catastrophe that this small woman has experienced, who enjoys enviable health (she does not suffer from any disease and eats everything). It has witnessed two world wars and two pandemics, the so-called Spanish flu of 1918 and the current coronavirus.
His father went to the front and did not meet him until the first conflict that tore apart Europe ended. In the Second World War, it was her husband who was called up.
As a child, Rosa María Schaller was weak and sickly. The doctor even told her mother that the little girl would not live long. Yesterday he was no less than 107 years old. She remembers that at that time Spain seemed like a very distant country. He did not imagine that in 1996 he would arrive in Xàbia to stay. Her grandson says that then, when Rosa María was 83 years old, she was more delicate than now. The Mediterranean climate has made him fable. She leads a normal life and every day she performs that quiet exercise ritual of taking care of the plants and walking through her beautiful garden.
This woman with a happy look and who does not lose her smile is the oldest neighbor in Xàbia. The mayor, José Chulvi, came yesterday to congratulate her. He gave her a poinsettia flower. Another flower for that garden that is longevity medicine.
– .
