 |
| Gigi Felix Velarde, writer of this article, with Dr. Herminio Velarde, Jr., her father. |
I’m proud of my mother but most especially of my father.
 |
| Dr. Herminio Velarde, Jr. with his family. |
Like
Don Quixote, he was full of dreams yet no one believed in him for it was too
far out for the people he loved, but like Pancho, I believed him, I adored and
liked his visions. As early as 10 years old, I knew his dreams will be a
reality, I just felt it when everyone made fun about it.
My
father, Dr. Herminio Velarde Jr. was so driven. He did things right and left
burning his candles on both ends. I love that he loved the arts; song, dance,
theater. I saw it in my early age with his Bachelor’s Club; the singing and
dancing that happened in our home with all the artists and special people is an
unimaginative world. I would sneak out from my bedroom once in a while to see
who arrived; trying to find out it was Amalia Fuentes, Maggie dela Riva, Nestor
de Villa, or a beauty queen, maybe a famous doctor, a writer perhaps, politician, or simply a
friend or a relative.
But
what amazed me was behind the party was a dad who did not just love the party
people, but a man with a vision trying to convince everyone of a certain
project to help change society for the better. I remember him saying, “We can
be rich, famous, and beautiful, but still, we must be relevant to the society,
we must be of service to our people who need our expertise”.
In
my own lingo, the word is “talent”. He had the talent to cure, my mother had
the talent to teach dance and a model who shines in the fashion shows
extraordinaire, and so, he would always think of a project at the end of the
year.
He
would always come up with something creative, innovative, something new,
different, so different that at some point, no one even believed and no one
listened to him. To name a few:
1. “In ten years, people will need to live far from
Manila because there will be too many people in here.” So, he thought of
Antipolo Condominium.
“We will need to build our houses upward or
vertically (Condominium) if we want to live in the city”. So he thought of
Pacifica Condominiums where no one wanted to believe and support his vision. I saw
how the investors fooled him until he came short of funds.
Everyone was disillusioned and disappointed for the
dream which did not come true. This was the time when I saw my father so sad
and frustrated for he felt he failed his own family and friends who invested
money in the first ever condominium in the country.
Why did he
fail?
The investments
were not enough and the people who were supposed to build it and take
responsibility on permits and finances fooled him. Just like Don Quixote, he
turned out to be a fool, a laughing stock and a man who died with his dream buried
under the ground. Together with the dead condominium dream was his rejuvenation
clinic wherein he tried to build side by side.
2. “We must have an eye clinic for Asia where we all
can run to with the best doctors." Since he was an eye doctor who studied in New
York and with all his connections and power, he had brought the best doctors in
our country in order to help fulfill this dream.
3. The stem
cells of today were the same stem cells he thought of in the 80’s.
Funny it may seem but he always tagged me along in
his dreams and visions. I was always there to see if he would be successful or
if he would fail to convince the people of his project.
He brought the stem cells from Germany where he further
studied it there and eventually opened the Bavarian Health Clinic in Green
Valley, Baguio but since he was born too early for his time, it failed, for only
few supported it, and I was one of the few.
I had terrible asthma attacks when I was younger and
had some lung stem cells injected in me and believe it or not, I have no asthma
attacks anymore. If you don’t believe, ask my relatives and friends.
4. Bachelor’s Club. He was one of those, if not the one
who thought of having a financial care- giving every Christmas at Luneta Park
to almost a thousand children. I recall this so clearly because the goodies
were done in our house. We prepared 2 kilos of rice, can of sardines, candies,
toys, clothes in a bag and would give it away every Christmas Eve as they
lighted the Christmas tree.
Later, the ceremony was changed and held in
Christmas morning for it was too cold and late for the kids to receive it. How do
I know? I was part of the team.
I remember clearly
when my father handed me two packages saying “you must learn to give and help
the poor, go on and hand them the gifts”. He even asked me to help put goodies
in the gift sack. At an early age, I knew what it is to be poor and what we,
better of people, can do to the poor. At 10 years old, I knew what care giving
actually meant.
5. He also offered to cure for free in Hospital ng
Maynila, St. Paul’s Manila Clinic, Doctor’s Hospital and Notre Dame Baguio
Hospital. In Hospital ng Maynila, he would have Christmas shows, fiestas asking
the rich people to come and donate money for the poor.
I remember when I met Ariel Ureta for the first time
when he sang for the fund- raising. He liked Ariel Ureta because he could mimic the
voice of Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and many other singers that
my father liked.
I also saw Beauty Queens having a mini Fashion Show
or Santacruzan in the grounds of Hospital ng Maynila to raise funds for the eye
department where my father was the director. Later on, I noticed that we were
always in Baguio every Holy Week and Christmas for he offered to cure there for
poor Igorot brothers and sisters, even for the nuns of St. Paul’s Notre Dame
Hospital.
I know for a
fact, because when the clinic would be filled with patients, I would be asked to help
interview them and put eye drops so their eyes would be dilated and ready for
my dad’s ocular inspection to see their eye problem with his hand held gadget
and sometimes, the machine where you had to follow the light left and right, I would
hear him saying “Look at the light and follow it.”
I saw his Igorot patients with Authentic G- strings,
feathers in their head, and the original bra- less old Igorot ladies bringing
with them stuffs like, eggs, vegetables, and chicken as payment for my father’s
services. Seeing this at an early age, I idolized, admired and loved my father
more and more each day.
Such beautiful heart, I would say silently to myself
as I watched him.
I remember a Datu of the Igorot Tribe coming in to
the clinic with cataract and my father operated on him, and he was able to see
again clearly. He was so overwhelmed that he did not offer fruits, rice, vegetables,
or chickens but offered his youngest daughter to serve us for life. I was
shocked to hear that he would offer his youngest girl to serve us for life?! That
is how grateful he was and I saw how the Datu treasured honor, because he
insisted. My father said, “No need for that.” But the Datu said that he would
feel insulted if we did not take the offer. And so my father accepted the offer
but only for two years and not for life. So, I had the young Igorot yaya and playmate for two long years. Such gratitude…
6. Walang Sugat, Minda Mora; two zarzuela’s of his
grandfather Maestro Fulgencio Tolentino and a musical play written by “Lola Basyang”
also known as Severino Reyes. It was star- studded by good singers and actors
performed both in the country and abroad.
In Minda Mora, I remember being with Tito Butz
Aquino who was one of the ‘estudiante’, trying to convince me to portray the
flirt student which I had difficulties portraying for it was so not me. I remember
him pulling me to the side saying “Gigi, it is just a role, we know that you
are not a flirt. Just try to do the role well, and we promise not to think of
you that way. We know that you are a nice girl but we are tired of doing the
scene over and over again because you refuse to do the flirt role. Go ahead,
Gigi! We will not think of you that way.” And so I did for the first time went
out from my real self and portrayed the flirt student in the play flirting with
the male students in the dorm, in the Zarzuela Minda Mora.
It was indeed a learning process for me, learning to be
someone else in a play and trying to internalize a different persona and forgetting of who i really am.
No comments:
Post a Comment