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FRAMINGHAM – Beloved by her family and friends, Sabina Caballero de Parejo lived a full, meaningful, and healthy life for 99.8 years. Sabina was the matriarch of 73 Parejos spanning five generations. She was always ready to travel by foot, by car, by plane and without fuss. She was fond of the ocean and swimming and would eagerly take a dip in cold temperatures. At home she was always in the kitchen with all the stove burners fired up preparing feasts. When company visited Sabina would stay up all night with a ready smile and a quick laugh, sipping her favorite glass of Pisco.
Sabina was born in 1922 in Salpo, Peru’s Otuzco providence, in the mountains of the La Libertad region high above the city of Trujillo in the northern desert coastal area of Peru. She left her family home in Salpo as a young woman for the city of Lima where she built a homestead and village for her family.
In 1955 Sabina met her future husband Antonio (El Español Dulce) Parejo, who was from Huelva, Spain. Sabina won Antonio’s heart through her extraordinary culinary skills, which included his favorite dish cerviche.
As an adventurous couple, they traveled wherever electrical engineering jobs took Antonio and they lived in various mining communities of Peru, from the coast, to the rainforest, and to the mountains. During those years they started their family and eventually settled back in Mirones Bajo, the neighborhood that was originally vacant land that Sabina with a small group of settlers founded and created back in the 1940s. Today, the neighborhood is fully grown and incorporated into the city of Lima.
Once settled back in Lima, Sabina took to the special skills of cooking “American” dinners for Ex-Pat families who arrived from America to the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores, Lima. She added to the already wide palette of Peruvian dishes that American style of cooking and passed onto her children her unique culinary skills. Sabina continued to cook with love well into her mid-nineties for her appreciative family.
During down economic times, Sabina, with her family of six, was creative in stretching her pocketbook, working as a cook, raising chickens for market, or recycling paper into profitable paper bags for grain wholesalers. She hired neighbors for her cottage industry businesses helping them increase their household income as well. To these efforts she found her own economic way to purchase lands that she later profited from and parceled the homestead out to her six children.
Although Sabina’s own formal education was cut short as a young woman, her acuity and keen acumen for business held the family together. She encouraged her children to take advantage of college so they would be better prepared for the modernization of Lima. Her own siblings eventually followed her bold lead to Lima and embarked on successful businesses as well. This amazing woman helped so many people find their path upward thanks to her tenacity.
Sabina was raised in the Catholic faith, and she remained in tune with her faith, yet with keeping an open eye with her indigenous traditions close at hand, expressly preparing mixtures of tonics, tinctures and customs to help relieve minor health conditions.
As her children came and made a home in the U.S. and became citizens, Sabina decided in her mid-80s to live seasonally between Lima and with her youngest daughter Irene (Nena) in the states. Sabina became an American citizen in April 2016 and proudly cast her first presidential vote at age 94. In the middle of the night of the elections, she popped straight up in bed and asked if the “First Lady” had won and was sadly disappointed she didn’t win.
Sabina told the family she was planning on living to 110. When she was 94, Sabina decided to throw herself a huge birthday party back in Mirones Bajo, Lima. She didn’t want to wait for the more iconic 95th or 100th birthday. It was like throwing a large wedding party. Family, friends, and her wonderful old time neighbors came from all parts of Peru and the US. There was a 16 piece orchestra because the family got excited and threw caution to the wind. Sabina danced freely and fiercely at her 94th birthday celebration gala.
Sabina is predeceased by her parents, Getrudys Sandoval Sanchez from Trujillo, Peru and Sacramento Caballero Sanchez from Salpo, Peru, and her husband Antonio Parejo Sanchez from Huelva, Spain, and her infant son Ramon Parejo, Lima, Peru, her siblings in Peru: Eladia Caballero de Lujan, Juana Caballero de Ochoa, her brother Santos Caballero, and her great-granddaughter Jeydalis Eva Rodriquez, Framingham, MA.
She is survived by her six children: Antonio Parejo (Providence, RI), Sebastian Parejo (Framingham, MA), Jose Luis Parejo (Spain), Consuelo Parejo (Medway, MA), Getrudys Parejo de Saavedra (Framingham, MA), and Irene Parejo de Lopez (Framingham, MA). Siblings: Emma, Alejandro, Felicita, and Susana (Peru).
15 Grandchildren: Rainier, Nadia, Jeremy, Evelyn (FL), Deivis, Bettssy, Yahaira, Irene, Marilyn, Edward, Jhonathann, Graciela, Jose-Antonio, Jean-Pierre, and Sabrina, all living in Massachusetts.
37 Great-grandchildren: Carlos, Jacob, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Genesis, Renato, Gael, Adrian, Alejandro, Cristian, Isabella, Jacob, Liliana, Brian, Joshua, Darlene, Glady, Jelianis, Jhosmel, Aiden, Felix, Joeliel, Jariel, Jayden, Kristaly, Krisyaniel, Abner, Gabriel, Valerie, Sherlyn, Scarlett, Rafael, Christopher, Nicholas, Jhonathann, Alina, and Joel
4 Great-great-grandchildren: Johani, Alexander, Arden, and Nayla.
Family and friends will honor and remember Sabina’s life by gathering for visiting hours in the McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home, 11 Lincoln St. Framingham on Tuesday, June 14 from 4-8 p.m.
Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Stephen Church, 221 Concord St. Framingham on Wednesday morning at 10 o’clock.
Interment will follow in St. Stephen Cemetery in Framingham.
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McCarthy McKinney Lawler Funeral Home