Brazilian Rosalia Pereira had two reasons to celebrate this week: her miraculously rekindled true love 40 years to the day after their first date and being crowned Sao Paulo’s senior beauty queen.
Ms. Pereira had just won a beauty contest, which aims to give the elderly a bit of fun just before Mother’s Day on Sunday.
“To participate, to have the courage to participate, is proof that the elderly today are active and this is very good, because it boosts everyone’s confidence,” Ms. Pereira said.
Now in its 15th year, the contest is run by a community centre for the elderly in the northeast of the city. “This is part of social inclusion, getting people out of their houses,” said Nilton da Silva Guedes, social integration director at the centre, known as the Paulista Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology.
Organisers whittled down more than 100 initial contestants to 25 finalists. On the day of the final, hopeful beauties aged between 62 and 77 paraded before a loud audience.
“That’s my mother!” one younger woman shouted, pointing proudly at the stage.
Up for grabs were titles in five other categories: Miss Timidity, Miss Elegance, Miss Smile, Miss Congeniality and Miss Beauty.
Mother-of-two Ms. Pereira, a commercial manager, is no stranger to the catwalk, having won another title in her suburb in 2016.
Finding love
But what is beauty without love? In this, Ms. Pereira says she has been the biggest winner of all.
Her greatest achievement, she says, was “rediscovering the big love of my life.”
Divorced, she recently rekindled a relationship with her very first boyfriend after he found her through Facebook.
Thirty five years had passed since she’d turned down his marriage proposal. “I was very young. He was even younger. Afterwards, I regretted it,” she said. By the time they met again, she was already 60. “The next day, he asked me to marry him and put a ring on my finger.”
