Considerate centenarian

Known to care for and nurture others during her lifetime, Karachiite Freni Mehta’s entry into the 100th year of her life on November 23, 2022 was a cause for celebration for her family and admirers. She is "a very incredible, remarkable, caring, giving, bravest, no-nonsense woman of substance,” noted a write-up sent by her daughter Armine Merwanji.
Along with a birthday cake, festoons, birthday cards and messages was a beautiful floral arrangement. "Her love for flowers and her garden knew no bounds. She kept it immaculately clean, trimmed and well cared for: dare a flower droop under her watchful eyes!” reported the children who are saddened that since the last 10 years their mother is suffering from dementia.

Top: Freni Mehta on her 100^th birthday and (above with) Jamshed

To her two daughters Kamal Davar and Merwanji, and two sons Jehangir and Ratanshaw, Freni exemplified strength: "She gave her all, silently without any fanfare or complaint.” Born in Karachi to Baimai and Ratanshaw Khambatta, Freni was one of three daughters, the other two being Hutoxi Khambatta who predeceased her and Kaity Bhada. After her education at the Mama School, for a brief spell she served as a secretary. At the time of the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, she and her husband Jamshed Mehta took up residence in Hyderabad, Sindh, where Jamshed looked after the family’s ice factory business. "It was a very alien way of life” from the one she was used to in Karachi. They lived there for the next 37 years.
"Some instances of her bravery have left a very strong impact on our mind,” recalled the children. "During the worst floods that Hyderabad ever witnessed in the late 1960s, she stood tall beside our Dad, standing on a truck, requesting and collecting donations (and alms). She opened her house to all the village people (goth) who occupied our house and compound as they had lost everything. She arranged langar khaana (community kitchen), nursed and cared for them.” A volunteer with the Women’s Auxiliary Corps, tending to the sick and the wounded came effortlessly to her.
Earlier when a tragic fire had broken out in Bohri Bazar in Karachi in 1958, "without fearing for her life, she helped all who entered our Mehta House compound and brought many in and looked after them, bandaging and nursing their wounds and burns.” Known for her kindness and generosity, "not a single person who entered our house, whoever s/he be, was ever turned away,” attested the children.
A strong adherent of the Zoroastrian faith and its tenets, she looked forward to starting her day with the Hoshbam prayers, recited at daybreak. Besides gardening, she enjoyed cooking, reading, knitting and embroidery.