Lola shares bits and pieces of her life, her thoughts, her prayers randomly and I want to be able to catch them. Some days, we go through her journal – treasured notebooks that she writes in daily (and has been doing so for almost fifty years). But on most days, we just talk, eat biscocho or camote and look at old photos.
I always knew my Lola went to the University of Santo Tomas. She was a pharmacist (which I think was considered a popular track for women then). But I never really knew where she studied before that.
One afternoon, I decided to ask her, and she answered me matter-of-factly:
During my time, you would take your elementary classes in your town. (Lagonoy for her). Highschool, one would go to Naga. Most girls went to Colegio (now, Universidad de Sta. Isabel). But, I passed Camarines Sur National High School.
She gave me her closed-lip smile. A smirk almost. She said she would have gone to Colegio if she had not passed the public high school. Aah. She normally is quite humble – but I sensed how proud she was of this.
The year she started high school in Naga though, the Japanese had come. School had stopped, and students had to go to school where they were from. She had to go back to Lagonoy. But, she said that her class had fought to be able to continue their studies in Naga.
Lola is a humble woman, but you can definitely tell when there is something she is extra proud of.
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I started this post on November 7, 2015 – almost five years later, I now have two little girls (one of them named after Lola). Hoping these snippets of their family history inspire them to be whatever it is they want to be, study whatever they want, and wherever they want.
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