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Earlier this week, I sat down with Laila Sari, a famous Indonesian singer, actress and comedian who has been entertaining audiences since the late 1940s. Declining to meet at her home, Laila had chosen a modest Padang food warung in her neighborhood in Tangki, West Jakarta.

“There aren’t any chairs in my house, I don’t want you to sit on the floor,” she said over the phone. “And there are too many people in this small house. Too noisy.”

She arrived at the warung in a green traditional Muslim outfit wrapped around her tiny, 74-year-old body, looking healthy and strong, just like she always does on her television appearances.

She has been dubbed “nenek-nenek lincah,” or “energetic old lady,” because of her signature, singular style: singing exaggerated rock ’n’ roll vocals while dressed in a traditional outfit of a kain (similar to a sarong), a modest long-sleeved top and a headscarf.

Among her favorite songs to sing are The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” popularized by Ray Charles.

I offered to order her some food before we started the interview, and she responded with a big gap-toothed smile.

“I can hardly chew now. I’ve lost so many teeth,” she said.

A wealthy beauty icon in her heyday, the aging Laila now lives from day to day. Besides taking care of herself, she is the source of strength for her great-granddaughter and six other relatives who live with her.

She still sings, but has long since changed her former elegant style to silly, often donning a bright-colored wig and a young girl’s dress for her humorous performances on kid’s and variety shows.

“I am old and I have to have something to sell. This also includes the way I perform, everything is exaggerated,” she said. “I wasn’t a comedian before, but now I am.”

Born Nur Laila Sari Jahrotuljannah in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, in 1935, Laila said her name means “flower of Eden that blooms in the light of the night.”

She surely was a flower in some very old photos taken of her in her 20s that she showed me, looking stunningly beautiful whether in traditional or more modern outfits.

Laila keeps these photos, including some of her late husband and an ex-boyfriend, inside two notebooks that she uses to stay organized.

The photos are a constant reminder to her of the long life she’s lived, and everything that has changed.

“I love looking at these pictures, that’s why I bring them everywhere I go,” she said. “It takes me back to the old days when everything was beautiful.”

The early years of Laila’s life were somewhat turbulent. Her father died when she was two years old — she can hardly remember what he looked like, she said.

At age 3, her grandparents took her from her mother and raised her in their home in Java.

Her mother, Amak, eventually remarried, to a North Sumatran musician who helped uncover and encourage Amak’s talent for singing and acting.

Laila, who grew up in a strict Muslim environment, said she found it difficult to accept the fact that her mother was a singer when she went to live with her again at the age of 9.

By the time she turned 12, however, her opinion started to change. She began to admire her mother’s career, and wondered if she had the talent to follow in her footsteps.

“I saw people throw money and other small presents, like a handkerchief, to Amak while she was singing,” she said. “I wondered at that time, is it really that easy to make money?”

She told her mother and stepfather that she wanted to give singing a try, and made her debut with them when they were hired to sing at a wedding party in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

“I was so good that people really liked me,” Laila recollected. “I remember when I sang this song about ‘mother,’ I couldn’t hold back my tears. Turned out people also cried with me.”

Over the next few years, Laila rose to fame in Indonesia. As she grew up, the night flower blossomed into an idol, especially among men. Despite never releasing an album, she was constantly in demand for concerts.

She performed for Indonesian soldiers during the post-independence period, and she was also famous among the district heads in the areas where she was paid to sing.

“Very often they fought among themselves to win my heart,” Laila said.

In 1955, she made her silver screen debut.

Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, often invited her, along with other singers, to perform at the Presidential Palace during Independence Day celebrations.

Apart from his reputation as one of the world’s most influential leaders of his time, Sukarno is also remembered as “the great lover” by many. He was married to at least seven women, most of whom were decades his junior.

I asked Laila if Sukarno ever made a pass at her. “I was tiny. There were other women who looked more mature,” Laila said. “And I already had a boyfriend at that time.”

At 23, Laila was a symbol of the perfect woman: young, talented and beautiful. But not everyone found her charms irresistible.

One of the most unforgettable moments of her career, she said, was when she was barred from performances in Kerwang and Bekasi in West Java in 1958. Why was she banned?

“Men were crazy about me, and their wives felt threatened, so they united to keep me from singing in their areas,” she said. “I was not even a ‘naughty’ singer. The clothes I wore were just normal, not really that curve-hugging.”

But Laila was no stranger to romance, saying she could not remember how many men she had dated over the years.

“Countless!” she said, followed by a big laugh. “I dated an actor, a singer, a soldier, you name it.”

In 1960 she decided to settle down romantically, and married Burtje, a Dutch man who was born and grew up in West Sumatra, where his family owned tea and coffee plantations.

Burtje, whose Indonesian name was Murdadi Iskandar, was a handsome man five years younger than Laila.

“He was the most handsome of all and he loved me,” she said. “He told me to tell people that I was born in 1940, not 1935. I guess he wanted to have a sense of an older man to protect me.”

Throughout all this time, Laila’s fame continued to grow. Between 1955 and 2008, she starred in at least 20 films. But she and Burtje never suffered the marital woes that often accompany celebrity.

Even when she had to shoot a bedroom scene with actor Slamet Rahardjo in 1971’s “Wadjah Seorang Laki-laki” (“Face of a Man”), by renowned director Teguh Karya, Burtje was supportive of her.

“It was something that would have been banned today, and I might get charged for violating the anti-porn law,” Laila joked when asked what filming the scene was like.

“But he wasn’t directly on top of me, there was a pillow placed on my chest. [Slamet] was handsome, but my husband was more handsome.”

Even though she was married, there were still men who were crazy about her. Some even offered Burtje a house and a car if he would be willing to leave her, she said.

Laila and Burtje never had a child of their own. Laila said she was infertile, and that she was lucky to have someone like Burtje, who never made it an issue. Instead, the couple adopted a child.

After 33 years of marriage, Burtje’s health began to deteriorate in 1993. Medication cost the couple a fortune, and they had to begin selling off their possessions, including two cars and their second house, to cover the charges.

At the same time, Laila’s mother was also ill. In need of money, Laila was forced to seek help from friends, neighbors and relatives.

“It was a difficult time for me but I faced it. Just like the weather, it won’t be sunny all the time,” she said.

Seven years later, her mother passed away. Burtje died exactly a week later. Laila was “broken into pieces.”

She admitted that it often still breaks her heart when she looks at the old photographs. She sometimes daydreams of becoming young again, she said.

“While looking at the photos, I often said, ‘You were so beautiful. Wherever you walked people turned to you. But look at you now,’ ” she said with glassy eyes.

Today, she is still a fixture on television variety and talk shows, though usually in comic roles, and is often asked to entertain the elderly at nursing homes.

Having lived a full life, Laila said she has only one wish left: watching her great-granddaughter grow up and live a decent life.

“Her mother died last year, and her father left before she was born,” she said of the 4-year-old. “When I pray, I ask God to grant me good health so I can earn money to feed my family. I wish for a longer journey from here.”