Rosa Rosal meows her way to the blood bank

Rosa Rosal never knew how to stop and smell the flowers. She smells mostly blood — literally for the Red Cross’ blood bank.

She wasn’t born rich. At a young age, she was already doing street vending and once even worked in a charcoal factory.

When she began earning well from the movies, she became a Red Cross volunteer (now a governor) and spent her spare time in blood-letting projects and collecting money to improve the blood bank, which thanks to her, already boasts of the most modern facilities.

But she needs more money because the population of this country is getting bigger and there are more people in need of blood.

Fortunately, since everyone knows she can be trusted with money — after all, she was voted Most Trusted in a recent Reader’s Digest survey — donations come in from kind souls by the millions: Nedy Tantoco of Rustan’s, Richard Gomez and now Ormoc Rep. Lucy Torres, Dr. Vicki Belo and Kris Aquino.

Recently, 90-year-old Marcos Roces, who used to own Ideal Theater along Avenida Rizal, gave Ms. Rosal P50,000 after reading in a newspaper article that she needed money for more Red Cross projects.

Her vision now is to expand further to the provinces and be of help to those in need of blood, especially in far-flung areas. It’s a dream, but trust Rosa Rosal to turn that into a reality.

Being part of the Red Cross isn’t a walk in the park — and doesn’t pay a centavo. To this day, she keeps her cell phone on 24/7 in case there is an emergency. Even at 2 a.m. she would get up to find ways to look for a certain blood type.

People her age are mostly retired and leisurely tend to orchids in their garden — or take care of pets. She doesn’t remember a time in her adult life when she enjoyed having pets, except once when Toni Rose Gayda got a white cockatoo named Totoy. But the bird really belonged more to her grandchildren John and James.

It’s not that she doesn’t like animals. She shows compassion to anything that breathes. She simply never had the time to have pets — having been so busy saving human lives.

Toni Rose, on the other hand, believes that her calling is to give shelter to abandoned dogs and cats — and that is also a difficult mission because even animals have to be cared for and it’s a relief that society is already conscious of that.

Ms. Rosal recalls how she and a very young Toni would drive to their Pampanga hometown and her little girl would see a goat in the field and turn to her to ask: “Mommy, can we stop so I can pet the goat?” Of course, the loving mother would oblige. The car would pull over so Toni could have time with the goat. Yes, Toni Rose Gayda is a female modern-day St. Francis of Assisi.

But this time, it is Rosa Rosal who has to deal with cats — rather, humans playing felines.

Tomorrow at lunchtime, the organizers of Cats, the Musical will turn over to Ms. Rosal P2.380-M during a press call scheduled at the CCP (where Cats will also be staged starting this Saturday, July 24). Expected to lead the simple turnover rites are impresarios Francis Lumen of All Youth Channel (AYC) and Bambi Verzo of Concertus.

Ms. Rosal says that they plan to get from that amount a Hi-Ace commuter van that will be used in blood-letting programs (the medical team and equipment have to be transported) since on several occasions there are usually two or three of these operations ongoing at the same time and Red Cross needs more vehicles badly to collect more blood.

She is most grateful to the people bringing the international touring group of Cats over for donating to Red Cross. (Ms. Rosal met Francis through Arnold and Ruth Co, who are neighbors and like children to her already.)

And so tomorrow, expect Rosa Rosal to be meowing her way to the blood bank.