THE secret to still being married when you're both 100 years old is 'loving each other very much' and 'getting on well', say Ezequiela and Frutos, who have just celebrated 76 years of wedded bliss.
Madrid's only married couple whose ages are both in treble figures, the pair were given a commemorative plaque and flowers by the city council and got to meet former Spanish football team manager Vicente del Bosque.
“I'm in great health. I don't take any medication or anything,” says Ezequiela, 100.
She walked around the Posada de la Villa restaurant – founded in 1642 in the La Latina neighbourhood – unaided, although her husband Frutos, 105, has to use a stick.
Ezequiela has only just turned 100, and although Madrid gave them gifts and a ceremony for their 75th wedding anniversary last year, as they are now the region's only centenarian couple, they have been the subject of another public celebration this week.
They were asked what the secret to their long marriage was and, as Frutos is too deaf to follow the conversation, Ezequiela answered for him.
“Getting along really well. We love each other very much,” she said.
“And working hard at it,” she added on her husband's behalf.
The couple has one son, also called Frutos, who has given them three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
Frutos Junior says the secret to long life, as well as long marriage, is that his father has 'always slept really well at night' since he has 'always had a clear conscience.”
“He's a great man, just like my mother's a great woman,” says the couple's son.
“Although clearly, genes and a healthy lifestyle must have also helped.”
They are a 'tranquil' and 'cooperative' couple and both want to carry on living as long as possible, he says.
They were both born in the province of Ávila in Castilla y León – Ezequiela in the village of Muñopepe and Frutos in San Esteban de los Patos – and moved to Madrid after the Civil War.
Since then, they have lived in the same apartment in the Carabanchel neighbourhood, where they are looked after by carer Lidia Rivera.
Sra Rivera also attended the tribute, which she said she 'wouldn't have missed for the world', and adds that the couple are 'very affectionate'.
“Theirs is a lovely, very healthy home,” she adds.
Ezequiela has been a housewife all her life, and Frutos worked as a caretaker in a city-centre office – and although Ezequiela wants to carry on doing her own housework, she says she cannot as she 'doesn't have the strength in her hands' any longer.
But she does not wear glasses for her crochet work – which she does every day – and they are both able to carry out their own basic daily needs such as washing and dressing.
Frutos had a tribute five years ago for his 100th birthday and, as a huge football fan, was given a Real Madrid scarf – his favourite team.
This time, Vicente del Bosque put the same scarf around his neck five years on.
Various celebrities joined the 76th wedding tribute, including one of the surviving brothers of late president Adolfo Suárez, comedian Manolo Royo, bullfighter Paco Camino – since Frutos was a fan of bullfighting in his youth – singer Massiel and Archbishop of Madrid Carlos Osoro.
Madrid's Centenarian Association – which celebrates residents in their 100s and buildings and other heritage of over 100 years old – gave the couple a bouquet and certificate, and around a dozen other shops gave gifts including the hat retailer La Favorita and the chocolate shop San Ginés.
The restaurant has engraved a chair in tribute to the couple, reading: “Over 100 years of Ezequiela and Frutos.”
