An Orphan's Story

About the Book

World War II erupted in the Philippines triggered by the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Philippines was a commonwealth of the United States then. The war lasted for three and a half years, a life of living hell for the Filipinos. The Americans liberated the Philippines when General MacArthur landed in Leyte on October, 1944. Japan surrendered on September, 1945 after the atomic bombs were dropped at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We lived in a remote town of Victorias, in the province of Negros, in the western part of the country. The town’s population was about five hundred. The Japanese army conquered Bataan and Corrigidor on February, 1942. By April, the whole country was swarming with Japanese soldiers. It was on May when we had to evacuate the town to flee the enemies. The Filipino soldiers burned every building in town. It reminded me about the burning of Atlanta in Gone With The Wind. My mother, Gertrudis, was a forty-year old widow with four children. My father died of sudden heart attack on April, 1936. He was thirty-six years old. When World War II started, Renan was thirteen, Lyda was eleven, I was eight and Roland was five. The evacuation scene was very chaotic. That day, it seemed that the population of Victorias had multiplied ten times. There were so many open wagons pulled by carabaos, so many people and soldiers armed with rifles shouting all over the streets. We had to flee from the enemies to as far away as we could. It was a time of starvation. My mother got ill and died from tubercolosis on September, 1942 leaving behind four orphan children. We had to live with Uncle Lorenzo, my mother’s younger brother, and his common-law wife, Rogelia. She used to be a maid in our house but somehow she ended up as my uncle’s wife. She was a very abusive woman. We could not contact our paternal relatives since there was no communication between the islands during the war. They lived in another island across from Negros. Uncle Lorenzo also died from tubercolosis. So many people died from this disease since there was no medicine around. This was before the advent of antibiotics. A few relatives died from tubercolosis--Grandma Concha, my mother, Uncle Lorenzo and Aunt Modista, a younger sister of my father. After the war, in 1946, Aunt Maris, my father’s sister sailed from Panay to Negros and searched for us in Victorias. The Philippines is composed of so many islands which could only be reached either by plane or by boat. My aunt took the four of us with her to Jaro, Iloilo in Panay and raised us from 1946 to 1956. She sacrificed her life for us. Her only source of income was working as a seamstress. We all worked hard. We never played or went to parties with other children, we had to work and help Aunt Maris with her sewing. Lyda and I endured leech-infested rice paddies working from dawn to dusk to make extra money for school supplies. We also borrowed money from relatives to pay for school tuition. There was no financial aid or student loans in the Philippines. We could have married and forgot about school but we were determined to get an education which was the key out of poverty. We lived in a one-room bamboo house in the village, no electricity and no running water. We got water from the nearby river, same water we used for cooking, drinking, washing and bathing. We used kerosene lamps for lighting. Despite dire poverty, I graduated as first honorable mention in high school and was awarded a medal as, “An All-round Girl of the Year.” I was also editor-in-chief of our high school paper, “The Ilongo.” After high school, I attended St. Paul’s School of Nursing in Iloilo and graduated with distinction. I became a registered nurse which enabled me to come to America under the U.S. Medical Exchange Program. I went to Will’s Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. I met Paul while he was attending Temple University majoring in electronics. We were married at the Holy

About the Author

I was eight years old when World War II erupted in the Philippines triggered by the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This war lasted for three and a half years. We lived in Victorias in the province of Negros in the western part of the Philippines. My mother, Gertrudis was a forty-year old widow with four children – Renan was thirteen, Lyda was eleven, I was eight and Roland was five. My father, Perfecto, died in 1936 from a heart attack. With the help of Aunt Maris, we overcame poverty through education. I obtained my nursing degree from the University of Delaware and worked as a surgical instructor, nursing supervisor and retired as a rehab nurse in 2003. I earned a diploma in non-fiction writing from NRI Schools of Washington, D.C. in 1997. It had taken ten years to write and complete my book. I live with my husband, Paul and daughter, Brenda in Wilmington, Delaware. My younger daughter, Gwynne is married to Gary Brick. They live near Washington, D. C. with their daughters – Kiva, Jadyn, and Ilan. I am spending my retirement years taking piano lessons.