Centenarian credits 'ulam' for her long life

Ask Siti Zahrah Wahab the secret to her long life and the 102-year-old great grandmother will tell you to eat 'ulam-ulaman' (salad of fresh, green vegetables).

That's what she herself has been consuming in her younger days in Kampung Tanjung Belit in Padang Serai near here.

She does not eat much of it anymore because 'ulam' with 'sambal belacan' (spicy chilli with prawn paste) upsets her stomache.

Siti Zahrah, who is fondly known as Tok Bok, is believed to be the oldest person in her village.

She is still able to do her chores all by herself. She is healthy and her memory is good.

"I use a walking stick to move about and can see clearly at short range. On a hot day, I put on sunglasses to reduce the glare," she said to Bernama at her home.

Siti Zahrah speaks clearly.

Her identity card shows her year of birth as 1925, but she pointed out that when registering her birth her age was 'reduced' by 10 years. Does that make her 112?

The centenarian has four children from two marriages. She had three children - two sons and a daughter - from her first marriage and a daughter from her second.

Both her husbands are named Bakar, and they are still alive, she said. However, she is now a single mother who has nine grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.

Her eldest child, Yazid, a son, is 82 and her second child, daughter Zubaidah, is 75.

Zubaidah, with whom Siti Zahrah lives, said her mother has a good memory and can remember where she keeps her personal belongings such as her spectacles.

"She will go and fetch them herself. Her hearing is not that good and one has to talk loudly to her," she said.

Zubaidah, a general worker who earns RM270 a month, said her mother's meal now is mainly rice with vegetables and fish.

"She does not eat much ulam anymore because the sambal belacan gives her an upset stomach. She believes that ulam must be eaten with sambal belacan," she said.

-- BERNAMA