Month: March 2012

During graduation season, inspirational stories of triumph over adversity are in abundance. Which is very good.

Iloilo writers Hazel Villa and John Kevin Arevalo submitted to VERA Files and Yahoo the story of Ruthell Moreno, who is graduating summa cum laude, Bachelor of Special Education,major in Teaching Children with Mental Retardation from the West Visayas State University.

Ruthell, who is from Antique, is only the fourth summa cum laude of the College of Education (COE) after its founding as a Normal College more than a hundred years ago. The COE is a Center of Teaching Excellence and consistent placer in the Licensure Exam for Teachers.

In last Tuesday’s WVSU recognition day Ruthell, with a Grade Point Average of 1.23, received more receive university level awards: Most outstanding student teacher, Student of the year, Proficiency in SPED Award, Academic excellence award, an award from the Philippine Association for Teacher Education, Journalism Award, Rotary Award, Abelardo Alegre Ledesma award for excellence in culture and arts, Sen. Manuel Villar Jr Academic Excellence Award and two awards from Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

She also delivered the valedictory address in behalf of the graduates of 2012.

Hazel and John Kevin said, the story of Ruthell, 24, known to friends as “Che” could have been any regular story of an intelligent young woman making the most of her resources and abilities, except for the fact that she has Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or lupus, an autoimmune disease characterized by acute and chronic inflammation of various tissues of the body.

It’s the same disease that afflicted former president Ferdinand Marcos.

There is another person who is very proud of Che: Marilyn Robles, president of the Lupus Foundation of the Philippines.

Marilyn sent Che a message in Facebook: “Three cheers for Che! You deserve to be congratulated and commended, Che. Thank you for trusting me with your inner most fears during the early days of your diagnosis. The Lupus Foundation of the Philippines congratulates you and all other lupies who will graduate this year. The arduous task of working for a degree has paid off. Celebrate!”

Marilyn reminded Che and other lupies “not to celebrate under the sun.”

Lupus patients are ultra sensitive to sunlight. A Health website says exposure to sunlight can cause a skin rash or trigger a flare-up of internal lupus resulting in joint pain and fatigue.

Marilyn said she first met Che when she spoke before nursing students in Iloilo. At that time Che was agonizing about shifting to a less physically demanding course. Their communication continued, more so when Che became the president of the Lupus group in Iloilo.

Marilyn said a support group is very important and Che is lucky to have a very supportive family.

According to Hazel and John Kevin, “It was in October 2006 when Che first experienced the symptoms of Lupus. A rash shaped like a butterfly appeared on her face. Che was 19 and a third year nursing student at WVSU. She tried to conceal the rash from her peers and teachers using a face mask.

“Che even asked me to buy a ‘tayubong’ for her. She said she will use it to hide the rash on her neck. When I did buy her one, she immediately applied it. Che went to such measures just not to miss our class that day,” Rommel, her best friend, said.

“Then, she started having joint pains on her arms and on her feet. She tried to ward off the joint pains with different ointments. But the ointments’ effects only worked for a couple of minutes.

“When she was diagnosed of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus on June 2007 and was advised not to attend school anymore, Che thought that her life would never be the same as before.

“She was compelled not to pursue her nursing course and shift to education, which was less physically demanding.

“Pondering her illness, Che said,’I asked God why He gave this disease to me. I asked Him if He could take this back for the meantime and return it after several years.’

“Che never lost hope.She motivated herself to continue life. She attended a Christmas Party for Lupus patients on December 2007 and realized that there are more important things in life than certificates, medals, awards and career. And that is her health.

“After attending the Party, Che with her doctor, Dr. Caroline Arroyo, decided to build the Lupus Support Group of Panay, Incorporated for Lupus patients here in Panay who neither have the money or the resources to join the national support group which is based on Manila.”

Che sees what she is now as “God’s gift.” She is giving it back. “What I will be is my own gift to God,” she said.

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.”