By: Telly Gonzaga-Ocampo
St. Joseph College Class 1958-1962
At the museum of boholano art objects left to right: Remy Racho, Andressa Malanog, Regina Espejo, Milagros Ayaay, Rizalina Andoy, Florencia Gawala, Nenita Pamil
St. Joseph College is the old name of Holy Spirit School of Tagbilaran. Most of the students then came from different towns in Bohol. And there were some who came from Mindanao whose parents were previous internas. Unsa ba ang interna? The interna was a student who lived in the dormitory of the school under the guidance of the madres.
St. Joseph then offered collegiate courses in Liberal Arts, Education and Music major in piano and voice culture. And now the school is named Holy Spirit School and is situated at the its Dao, Tagbilaran campus.
From left to right: Milagros Ayaay, Rizalina Andoy, Andressa Malanog, Telly Gonzaga, Remy Racho Rueca, our host, Girlie Yap, Regina Espejo, Florencia Gawala and Nita Pamil
Our batch of girls from then College of the Holy Spirit, is composed of who we call as the postwar babies. Now in our 80s, we belong to the generation guided by simple but firm unwritten rules at home. A mere sitsit from our grandparents and parents as the Angelus bells rang, made us run fast to our houses to get ourselves ready for prayer.
Our group knows the meaning of frugality and contentment. If we felt hungry, we would then climb on fruit trees or go to the honasan aron magdala mi ug bahaw nga pagakan-on human sa among panghaha ug swake ug sijok apil na ang tujom.
We had -our own share of household chores. The bedroom was used as repository of our banig habol ug unlan. It was fun remembering that all of us slept din our sala. Magtapok mi inig pangatulog namo. We felt united.
Last Tuesday, a balikbayan classmate, Remy Racho Rueca from Balilihan treated us to a resort in Panglao for lunch where the air freely slaps you with tenderness and where you could have a wide view of the ocean and its surrounding islands.
The place is filled with details of it’s embellishment culled from the ancestral houses of yesteryears with Spanish and Malay influence. The architecture is truly Boholano.
There are few of us now. Many have passed on to the Great Beyond. And for us, we have weak knees and have remembering gaps but the memories of youth are very vivid in our minds.
Girlie, Daya and Bobong Yap’ s eldest child, is bequeathed to us by her parents. There was no generation gap between her and us. She is a product of good upbringing. Madala pa gyud siya ug sitsit.
To Remy, our heartfelt gratitude. After this, I’m going to finish the first chapter of no turning back. I started reading the material last night. The spirit is willing but my eyes are weak. Age is slowly taking its toll.