Facebook is full of posting by proud parents in their children’s graduation rites. Double pride for parents with children graduating with honors.
But the award-winning post,for me, was by journalist Isabel de Leon of the Manila Bulletin. Last week, she posted: “Scoured the entire Recto Avenue for a toga for my Petchay who’s graduating this Sunday.
“Found the toga and the cap. At dahil di ako sure kung may award na matatanggap ang apo ko, ibinili ko na rin sya ng gold medal. (And since I’m not sure if my grandchild will get an award, I also bought a gold medal.)”
Who can top that?
Recto Avenue, as we all know, is where you buy what you can’t get in school: fake diplomas, school ring, medals, etc. etc.
Abel and I covered Malacañang together during the Ramos presidency. She was famous in the Malacañang Press Corps for finding terrific buys when we go shopping in between coverage during foreign visits. We would be green with envy for the beautiful items she had found at bargain prices.
But when before, Abel’s shopping list were mostly her clothes, now Petchay’s needs are her priority.
Petchay, seven years old, is Matthew Benedict Adao, first son of Abel’s only daughter. He just finished his Prep school at Fairfield School in Quezon City. He also attends classes at Multiple Intelligence Learning Center.
When Petchay enters Grade One in June at Fairfield, he will also be studying Braille because he is half-blind. He can only see with his left eye.
Abel said Petchay was born in 2005 with sepsis (infection) because his Mom had urinary tract infection in the late stage of her pregnancy.
Abel said Petchay is a miracle baby. “He is special in the sense that he almost died when he was a newborn and stayed at the Nursery Intensive Care Unit for more than a month. He had sepsis and doctors told us he was going to die,” she recalled.
Abel then was one of Gloria Arroyo’s press undersecretaries. Every day, after work in Malacañang, she would pass by St. Jude church. “I begged God to spare him because looking at him every day with all those contraptions on his body, parang durog na durog puso ko. I promised God I’d give up something for Petchay.”
On the day the doctors said that Petchay has a slim chance of surviving, Abel said she resolved to give up smoking. When Abel arrived at the Heart Center that day, she was alarmed seeing Petchay’s crib empty. She thought of the worst. She ran to the nurses’ station, where she was told that Petchay had been transferred to a regular room.
Abel said Petchay’s physical growth is normal except that because he is half-blind he would always stumble or bump into furniture.She said he scores high in social interaction.
Last Sunday, Abel said when Petchay put on his toga, she also put on him the Recto-bought gold medal.
She later posted in her Facebook: “Good thing I bought that gold medal. Petchay got the Most Punctual and Most Confident awards though .”
Abel deserves a gold medal for “Best Lola in the world.”