Season of smiles

CEBU, Philippines - I want to have a nose job, too.

On this rainy Monday afternoon, before I headed up to the hills where Maria Elena Zaldarriaga resides, I was watching a video of comedienne Joan Rivers who’ve just celebrated her 80th birthday.

She has had over 700 aesthetic procedures, which include a plethora of Botox injections, several nose jobs, and an eye tuck.

Like Rivers, I have faith in plastic surgery.

“Look at her face now,” Zaldarriaga, who is fondly called Tita Allen says. “I have closed my mind about plastic surgery because the name itself tells it all: plastic. I don’t want to be plastic. I want to be natural.”

With five children and six grandchildren, the 63-year-old matriarch of the family-established Pages Holdings (Mooon Café, Lantaw, Thirsty?, to name a few) and her very own Bright Academy maintains an active lifestyle to keep her fit. She finishes 10 kilometers around the neighborhood and practices yoga twice a week. Last year, she joined a 21-kilometer run in Singapore.

“Aging is a natural process. I just have to embrace it—every wrinkle on my face tells a story. I don’t believe in machines that make you slimmer. There’s no substitute for exercise. I like to sweat it out and feel my endorphins. No medication could parallel that.”

In the beauty world, this is Allen’s season. Farewell to dark tones: Eyes are toned down to pave the way for lighter lips in pink and glossy red. Hair styles have come down, appearing as natural—straight with volume (oh, not rebond or Brazilian technique, please) or soft curls at the tip.

“But I love dressing up. It’s an old cliché: When you feel good inside, you feel good outside. Happiness is a decision,” she goes on. But she isn’t a happy-go-lucky type of spirit. As founding director of Bright Academy, she is strict with running the curriculum and the high-standard requirements her teaching force maintains.

“I am very easy to please. I get sad, but it’s easier to bounce back now,” she says. “Make things easy for yourself.”

And on my nose job plans?

“You’re just making life so complicated,” Tita Allen laughs.

Well, she often laughs.

Hasn’t she heard of crow’s feet yet? (FREEMAN)