My Nanay Book A-M

Page 49

Leng Gomez Caine’s Mom - Paquita Villanueva Gomez MD

“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan” 
 My Mom, Francisca “Paquita” Villanueva Gomez turned 93 in 2012. She was born in Angeles, Pampanga “posthumously” - in other words, she was in my lola’s womb when her father passed. My grandmother raised her and her sister by herself. Lola had a small tindahan in the palengke in Angeles City. But they lived in the household of my grandmother’s sister… so there was an uncle who was a very kind father figure and lots of women folk to make sure they behaved. Paquit always excelled in school, valedictorian in high school, Winthrop Scholar in Med school. I remember testing her by asking her the most esoteric words - and it always blew my mind that she knew their definition AND the Latin derivation! 1942 came and the war sent her away from Manila to seek safety from the Japanese Occupation. She was months away from graduating Medicine at UST. Eventually she graduated magna cum laude. She was on the fast track in her medical career – she had her own small hospital with her brother-in-law and then she met him. Colonel Francisco Mapa Gomez took her breath away (literally, he taught her how to hold her breath swimming)… They got married, and had five girls… My oldest sister Lisa died when she was 8 years old of polio (I was 5) and that left a sadness in her that time did not erase… But she was tough, and if one did not know any better, would never have guessed that this lady carried such a sorrow in her heart. She stayed home to raise us. When my youngest sister reached college, my mom started her medical practice again! Amazing. She practiced way into her 70’s and was always active in the STC family council and later in the barangay of our neighborhood. Her Wisdom Shared: 1. Be careful with words. Once you have let them leave your mouth, they cannot be taken back. They can change a relationship forever. 2.

Always try to be the best person you can be. Never be loud but subdued and refined.

3.

Be frugal. Do not spend what you do not have.


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My Nanay Book A-M by Leng Caine - Issuu