A hundred years of life for Jessie Pereira

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Feb 9,2017: Josephine Matilda Pereira, a native of Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district, is an exception as she is all set to celebrate her 100th birthday on Feb 9, Thursday. Born to Paul Francis Pereira and Christine Cicilia Farias in Puttur on February 9, 1917 as the second child among eight children, Josephine Pereira, fondly known as Jessy Pereira, left her home at an early age to take up nursing and later worked as a Staff Nurse in the famous J J Hospital in Mumbai.

"Serving the sick and poor was her passion," recalls Olive, Jessy’s niece. Jessy, a spinster, who stays at Lady of Light convent at Kengeri, Bengaluru, continues to look after the sick and helps the nuns, claims Olive.

Recalling an incident in the year 1985, Olive said that Jessy was travelling alone in a bus from Mangaluru to Mumbai when the bus met with an accident near Hubli. Jessy who was thrown out of the bus, lay unconscious for almost two days until a farmer noticed her and admitted her to a hospital, recalls Patricia, grand niece of Jessy and daughter of Olive, who works as a senior transplant co-ordinator at ZCCK (Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka) at Nimhans in Bengaluru.

Jessy had a twin sister who passed away two-years-ago at 98 and she has another sister Flossy Severene Lobo, aged 97, who is living with her children in Melbourne in Australia.Jessy will be celebrating her 100th birthday at Our Lady of Sacred Heart church in Bagalur today, Feb 9, Thursday.  Her undying spirit to heal others all her life makes her journey even more special.