Remembering Lola Celia

“A woman of valor who can find? For her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10)

Two years ago, I couldn’t find time to properly grieve the loss of this great woman in my life. Indeed, she reflects this quote from the Book of Proverbs. My Lola Celia was indeed, a woman of valor. Matapang. Magiting. And let me share with you friends a piece of “Herstory”.

Lola Celia’s story

At 19 she finished college with flying colors and immediately entered the teaching profession which she faithfully embraced for more than 40 years until her retirement in 2006. My lola was a Science teacher at Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School (MORMS) in Travesia, Guinobatan, Albay. She was well loved and respected in that School.

When she was a young girl, she went to an all-girls school in Legazpi – St. Agnes. Among the things she learned growing up was the piano. Originally, she wanted to be a lawyer. But her parents would not approve of it saying that Law is a “man’s profession.” Instead, she was sent to study Education.

Eventually she married my Lolo Pedro (ewan ko kung bakit Pedro, pero Angel ang tunay na pangalan niya e). He was a farmer and, apparently, a strict disciplinarian.

My Lola’s valor

A woman of valor who can really find? Lola has been through hardships in life, especially in marriage. Well, with all due respect to Lolo, he was not quite the ideal husband. He had the tendency to be physically abusive, especially when drunk. Lola had to endure all those years until Lolo passed away in 1998.

A woman of valor who can find? A teacher with no ambition to rise through the ranks, but still given the highest position her eligibility and competence can reach. Her co-teachers would enjoin her to take up Master’s degree and attend trainings to gather “certificates” to get promoted. But for her, being a teacher was the only rank she needed and the teaching is the reward itself. Many of us, including me, might not be even able to fathom such kind of ethos. Perhaps, some of us in this period of time would consider her naive if not foolish.

Yet with such commitment to education, she managed to send all her children to school while tending to one of them with special needs. Up until her last moments, she was worrying about that kid, our Tito Bong.

Eve after retirement, she continues to be a woman of valor

Fast forward, after retiring from teaching, she still practiced what she preached. She knew every healthy herbal concoction and relied on such. She barely took pharmacy meds. More importantly, my Lola, a woman of valor, chose to offer her pension and retirement pay. She did this to support my mother and her siblings. She dedicated a small chunk of her retirement pay to renovating what we can call our ancestral home. It was that humble household where she raised her kids with only one room. That house/faculty room where she prepared lesson plans and visuals by the light of the “gasera”. 

She somehow managed to build a small study house made of concrete, barely cement finished. Although it never had electric connection nor did it have water connection. We draw water from the old bomba/poso with extra lumot-flavor. Hehe don’t get me wrong it’s clean. Probably cleaner than today’s Nawasa.

But you know what, friends? Despite having a concrete house, she never slept there. That really made me wonder as to that house’s purpose. Now I realize perhaps she intended that house for us. It was meant for her grandkids to have a proper place to stay on summer vacations with her in Bicol.

She continued to sleep in her old home just beside the concrete house until that hut was destroyed by Typhoon Reming in 2009. While it was tragic, it was a miracle she survived that catastrophe unharmed even after the old wall of the hut fell on to her. A woman of valor who can find?

The most important memory I have of my Lola

But on the deepest personal level, there is one memory of my Lola which I wish I will never forget no matter where life would lead me. In 2008, probably my last happy summer vacation in Bicol (after this, my travel to Bicol was no longer the same, well for another story), Lola learned of my ardent desire to enter the seminary. She knew it back when I was young. She knew how heartbroken I was because I was not allowed to enter Minor Seminary. This was only because we were poor, and I had no sponsor to help with the enrollment.

During this time I was a sophomore in high school, and I just discovered the Breviary. I badly “wanted” one. Yes. Wanted, kasi di ko pa naman talaga need. Hahaha and Lola learned of this. One afternoon, she secretly slipped me a 500 peso bill in my hand and told me to buy that breviary I so wanted in the Paulines Shop in Old Albay. Later I found out it was too costly, so I never had a breviary until later. But I will never forget the gesture.

There are so many things I would like to write of Lola Celia. I want to share this to keep her memory alive. She may not have received any recognition from the State or the Church. However, once you read this, you will learn about someone great and humble.

Unfortunately, in her last years, the old house in Guinobatan was totally destroyed and she had to live with Tita Rachel, her second child. There, she drew her final breath on October 2, 2023.

Her memory lives in my heart

Lola is gone and the very concrete reminder of her is gone too. What remained, which I believe I bear in my heart, was her strong Catholic Faith. I learned her music, though it was not perfect, in the seminary. Most importantly, my passion for education remains. Medyo bobo ako sa science at math, pero sa ibang subjects, kahit papaano I can confidently share a thing or too. I thank God for the gift of my Lola. And I believe that I managed to survive this far because of her prayers, while in this life and there in the next.

A woman of valor who can find. Thank God I found one.

I love you, Lola Celia.