Daw Aye May at Hninsi Gone Home for the Aged in Yangon. She recently celebrated her 108th birthday.

IT was raining heavily when I walked in the door at Hninsi Gone Home for the Aged, in Bahan township. I’d come to visit grandma Aye May, the oldest woman in the centre, at 108 years of age.

When I arrived, she was sitting on the couch watching television, as graceful as ever. I took a second to admire her slim and fair complexion, and the traditional blouse known as a yinphone that she always wears.

Grandma has lived at Hninsi Gone for abiout 30 years, since arriving in 1979. In June 2005, I visited to help celebrate her 104th birthday. Therefore, I think I can say we are old friends.

“Hello grandma, how are you these days,” I called out to her. She did not hear me.

Her helper, 24-year-old Ma Thin Thin Khine, told me that lately grandma has lost her hearing in her right ear. I approached her again from her left side and raised my voice, repeating the question.

“Of course, I feel well,” she replied and turned back to the television. She was absorbed in a movie broadcast on MRTV-4.

“She’s still healthy and strong, even though she can’t hear so well anymore,” Ma Thin Thin Khine whispered to me.

To the astonishment of everyone in the home, grandma Aye May can still count money and remember the birthdays of her friends and family. However, most of these are now long gone.

Grandma was born in 1902, in Shwebo township, Sagaing Division – the second eldest of three siblings. She is a spinster, and lived with her siblings until they died, aged in their 60s. Several years later she came to live at Hninsi Gone.

I raised my voice to ask another question. “How can I live long like you, grandma?”

I was touched by the simplicity of her answer. “Say your prayers when you are free, live peacefully and always have a good mind.”

She also insists on walking for 15 minutes after every meal, Ma Thin Thin Khine says.

“Sometimes, I asked her to sit in the wheel chair, and she tells me, ‘A wheelchair is only for patients and walking is good for health.’ After walking, she watches television.”

Turning back to my grandma, I questioned her again. “What do you enjoy eating, what is your favorite food?”

“I eat everything,” grandma Aye May replies.

Ma Thin Thin Khine adds: “She only eats in moderation – never too much of something, even it is her favourite foods. She only eats to be healthy.”

I asked whether she thought her longevity was genetic, despite the fact she had far outlived her siblings.

“I don’t think so,” she says. “My parents and grandparents all died when they were in their 60s. I think it depends on your living style.”

Ma Thin Thin Khine says grandma is respected by the fellow residents at Hninsi Gone for her personal hygiene, as well as her Buddhist faith. As we talk, grandma Aye May keeps her eyes fixed on the television, counting beads in her hands.

“People donate money to grandma, which she keeps and contributes to building projects at the Home for the Aged, like the three-storey hospital we built recently. She also donates money to the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, Nyaungdone Monastery and Tant Kyi Taung Vipassana Monastery in Yangon,” she says.

“She is really peaceful,” Ma Thin Thin Khine continues. “We feel like grandma Aye May is our real grandmother.”