August 18, 2012
By: Gina Yoryet Román
“You are worth the strength of
twenty men together,” an old man said to me while I went on a stroll the other
day. My mother told me when we chatted the other day. When I scan my mother’s
slightly plump and petite (5
feet) physique, I am in complete awe because she has
more energy than many thirty and forty year olds. She is always very hyped up
and walks for endless hours at least 4 times a week. In previous years when I
used to train, many times she was my running partner.
After bearing eight children
she still has the strength of twenty men together like that old man inferred. I
recall one time in my childhood while looking through a photo album I spotted
this slender Asian looking woman in all the pictures with all my siblings and
I. at the beginning I was absent-minded and didn’t recognize her but then it
dawned on me that every time I looked at myself in the mirror, she looked right
at me (I look just like her when she was my age).
She actually looked better
because after being pregnant for eight consecutive years she was a size three
if not smaller!! I am like, “mother, did you spit all these babies right out of
your mouth?” What’s most startling is that not a single time in her life has
she gone on a diet, not once has she joined a gym or tried a strict workout
regime. Brisk walking and cutting back on grease, fried and abundant meals are
her only health allies now per her doctor’s recommendation as she’s hit ‘el sexton piso’ the sixth decade with a
few pounds over her limit.
She has never been the type of
woman to spend her whole day at a spa, or getting her hair or nails or a facial
done, yet she’s got very silky and glowing skin. Not once did she buy an
expensive anti-wrinkle or anti age spot facial moisturizer or treatment because
she could never be at ease even for five minutes as she was always running
after eight little bundles of terror leaving herself forgotten.
In addition to being a 24/7
mom without ANY nights out with her hubby or “Me” time, cooking, cleaning, doing
the laundry, making arts and crafts, knitting and making beautiful and colorful
shoes and dresses, cutting our hair, and making magic with everything she
touched, she juggled a full time job.
At the young age of thirty or
thirty one (younger than me), she had borne all eight of us she was still very
svelte and not even one single trace was left in her tummy. Sometimes when I look
at her, very few age spots reflect on her face and her hands are flawless, acne
problems have always been non-existent.
Unlike me! To begin with, I
was always ‘la gordita,’ the chubby
one in the family, I didn’t lose my ‘baby fat’ till after High School. When I
joined a co-ed soccer team, I started shedding the stubborn pounds, once I got
into Track & Field and Cross Country and started nurturing my body
differently it changed but I always hit my borderline.
I have not given birth to any
children and I sometimes laugh or go on panic mode when I look at myself in the
mirror and say, “todo se está empezando a
ir al hoyo,” when a small spot is starting to become visible. I have never
gone on a diet, but I do lead a healthy life for the most part as opposed to
her when she spent many years of her life getting a few bites of this and that
here and there.
I know for a fact that nature
was very generous with her and gifted her with great physical virtues; it must
be the Asian genes which prevailed over my father’s.
Every time I hear her say, “ya estoy viejita,” I tell her, “mom,
at sixty three you’ve got a long way to go!” I always ponder on this, “She’s so
intact that even though she was bent temporarily by cancer, she was never completely
broken. She should’ve been named Victoria
because she has shown great vigor, courage and aggressiveness in every area of
her life, the principles which we were brought up with.
‘Warrior’ comes from the
thirteenth century old Northern ‘werre’ meaning war.
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