"In July, God willing, my father will come with us to Fuengirola, which he loves. He bathes every day in the sea. My sister and I have a house there and we try to be with him every day," Paco Melero, the youngest son of Manuel Melero Sotillo, a 101-year-old from Ecijano who enjoys enviable health, tells LOC.

Manuel was born in Écija on April 19, 1922. She married early, in her early twenties, had two daughters and was soon widowed. He remarried Carmen, mother of his other three children, who died in 1987. He never passed through the altar again.

Very popular in his village, everyone is surprised by his health. No sugar, no cholesterol... Only four years ago he suffered a thrombosis that led to the amputation of one of his legs.

Manuel Melero Sotillo, with his son Paco (the youngest of the five) and his granddaughter Irene.

"His life is like that of any younger, healthier person. In addition, it has given us a lesson in what life is and how to take things. If the leg hadn't happened to him, he would be out there like a pellet," Paco recalls.

Manuel had to leave his apartment and moved to the house of one of his daughters, where the ground floor has been adapted for him. On weekends his other children take care of it. "And we go everywhere. I put it in the car and we go to Córdoba to eat, we take a walk through the Jewish quarter and in the afternoon we return, "says Paco.

At noon he sits on the porch to drink his Rioja, takes the piece of bacon, cuts with his razor some strips and eats them

Of his father he emphasizes that he has always been "very clean. He has missed my mother, but he has always liked to dress well. He buys Alvaro Moreno shirts, puts on his swimsuits... Like I'm 27." And so, neat, he enjoys his people, his friends and his family, which is like a pineapple around him.

At 101 years old, Manuel does his thing. He gets up, washes himself and has breakfast, at home or in a bar in town. He does not like either the pensioner's home or the Imserso trips. "I don't go around like a flock," he says.

He stayed 15 days in the countryside and slept under an olive tree or wherever.

On the beach you have "their churritos with coffee, not decaffeinated. And a shot of Machaco or Cognac." He always liked Centenario Terry cognac, but Paco brought him Cardenal Mendoza and it is already his favorite. "When he doesn't find him in the village, he calls us to look for him. And on January 1, which is his Saint, my nephew Álvaro takes him Rioja."

Manuel makes his own manteca coloráto take it with muffins. And he likes olives, which he himself splits with stone and dresses. "I bought him about 10 kilos and took them with him. In two days he prepared them. They are olives that are not found in stores, because they are made by someone who understands."

Manuel also loves interspersed bacon. "At noon he sits on the porch to drink his Rioja, takes the piece of bacon, cuts with his razor some strips and eats them. My sister doesn't want to, but he tells me from behind 'whenever you want you bring me more, I've already eaten it'".

In the field and in construction

Manuel Melero worked in the field. "When we go by car he always tells me 'I was walking here to work'." As a child he helped his father with cattle. "He would stay 15 days in the countryside and sleep under an olive tree or wherever."

He could read and write, and was able to work in construction, taking care of paying the staff, the hours of the workers ... He knew how to develop.

Like when he wanted to plant melons. "They even came from Valencia to buy trucks. He had been told that the earth was bad, but he took the plow, threw weight on it and the mule pulled with it on it, moving the earth well to pull the bad grass. And he sowed the melons."

Manuel Melero, with a friend on the way to the bulls. TRANSFERRED

He emigrated to Switzerland but returned after 15 days. "At home there have never been luxuries, but there has never been a lack of food. He saw that working piecework earned the same there as here, and for that, better at home."

He talks about everything with his family, and is "very detail-oriented. He asks about his grandchildren, who always come to see him, and when there is any event we all get together. We go to the countryside and it is my father who makes the rice, which comes out great."

Manuel's attitude is enviable. "A few days ago I went to my sister's house and found my father clinging to the door, standing, chair next to him, exercising and doing push-ups to stay in shape."

Manuel and lawyer Fernando Osuna, on his 101st birthday. TRANSFERRED

For his 100th birthday, the family gathered at the Country Club. This year, Paco and his family ate with him in a restaurant, with a casserole of rice with oxtail. They were joined by lawyer Fernando Osuna, a friend of the family.

"We enjoy my father, let's hope God gives him many years." "I, delighted to continue fulfilling the years I have to live, but being as I am, not in a bed without being able to move," he adds.

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