By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
ORGANIC food and a little tipple seem to be ingredients for a long life, if Chanpheng ‘Pheng’ Manirath is any indication.
Ms Manirath celebrated her 105th birthday with family and residents at Yarraman Nursing Home in Noble Park last Tuesday.
She only moved into the home last November, having lived in Adelaide with her niece Sengmany ‘Many’ Southammavong for seven years.
Ms Manirath has lost independence only in recent years, due to encroaching blindness and becoming wheelchair-bound from a broken hip.
But her mind remains sharp. She is on little medication, and her blood pressure and cholesterol are fine.
She still speaks Laotian and Vietnamese, listens to Laotian programs on SBS Radio and has vivid recall of names and events back in 1940s Laos.
“She can remember everyone who comes in to see her. Some of our friends forget the names of relatives in the family tree – she can fill in the gaps,” said Ms Southammavong, who now lives in Springvale.
She visits her aunt three times a week with traditional Laotian stews and salmon salad. She said she was returning the favour from childhood when Ms Manirath was a ‘mother’ to her and her six siblings.
She has been a war widow since the 1940s, never marrying since. “My mum was busy with the family business so Pheng took care of us during our childhoods,” Ms Southammavong said. “She’s still happy. We love to entertain each other.”
Ms Southammavong said the traditional Laotian food was a tonic, as was a traditional herbal wine that Ms Manirath still likes to sample. “In our country, there’s no fertiliser or insecticides. As a child, Pheng lived a natural diet and life.”
Last Tuesday, Ms Southammavong’s treat was a traditional rice-based birthday cake, which her aunt consumed with gusto.
