THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702060153
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 57 lines
Consuelo Moreno's family and the staff of the Sentara Nursing Home on Rosemont Road are taking good care of her.
She walks around the halls when she likes, but one day recently she was riding - her daughter and granddaughter were pushing her in a wheelchair.
The event was her 105th birthday party.
Mrs. Moreno was born to Spanish parents in French-speaking Tangier, Morocco, on Jan 31, 1892. Last week four generations of her family gathered for a birthday party given in her honor. They represented her two surviving children, eight grandchildren, four great grand-children and one great-great grandson.
The youngest of the party-goers was great-great grandson, Christopher Williams, 10, a fifth-grade student at Windsor Oaks Elementary. His mother, Monica Williams (who is Mrs. Moreno's great granddaughter), was unable to attend the party. But with a birthday cake to share and three grandmas to hug, Christopher was in kid paradise. ``I get spoiled a lot,'' he said.
Mrs. Moreno's son, J. Anthony Romero III, brought her to this country from Morocco in the '60s when Lyndon Johnson was president. Moreno's daughter, Maria Sanchez, and granddaughter, Maria Williams, proudly displayed a proclamation signed by Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, declaring Consuelo Moreno Day in Virginia Beach. In addition, she had salutations from President Clinton.
Moreno wears her years well. A volunteer snapping photos of the event described her as looking only 70.
Sanchez said, ``Her mind is as clear as a 50-year-old.'' Maria Williams added, ``She eats what she wants and drinks what she wants.'' In addition, Williams noted, her grandmother is fond of telling jokes - in Spanish. ``I wish you understood Spanish because she's always tellings jokes. She remembers jokes from when I was younger than Christopher,'' Williams said.
At 105, Mrs. Moreno said she's happy to be alive, but prays that God takes her when she's ready. Right now her biggest concern is to get new reading glasses so she can enjoy her prayer book and the Spanish magazines her granddaughter brings.
She doesn't have any tips for long life. When asked what she has done to be able to live to such an age, she said, ``God does it - from upstairs.'' Her advice to others who would live a long life is to ``Be good and don't hurt anyone.''
She has lived to an older age than either of her parents did. Back in her native Morocco her father drowned while in his 60s. Her mother broke her hip and died at 87.
Williams says her grandmother never fought with anyone or got mad at anyone. ``Her husband used to tell her, `Consuelo, there's only one like you.' '' She married her Jose Romero in 1916. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
Consuelo Moreno, front, celebrated her 105th birthday with family,
from left, daughter Maria Sanchez, granddaughter Maria Williams and
great-great grandson Christopher Williams.