Annette's treasured memories about her lola Carolina

Position: Grandparent.

Job description: To spoil the grandchild rotten.

That is the accepted norm in human society. The arrival of grandkids signals the retirement of a grandfather and grandmother after playing the difficult role of pretending to be monsters to their own children in their effort to instill discipline within the core of the person they brought into this world.

We can only hope the parents had fun during the procreation period because the result of that will grow into a huge responsibility. They will be accountable for whatever seed they plant successfully on this earth. If their children turn out to be menace to society, they are to blame.

Parenting is a tough job. They get their rewards when they become grandparents though. They get entitled to the pleasure of pampering their grandchildren — and that’s fun. You don’t have to worry about the outcome anymore because that ceases to be their duty.

The late Carolina Lapus Gozon, however, was not the usual granny who gave in to every whim of her many grandchildren. While she loved her grandkids, she also made sure they all grew up to be responsible citizens of this world.

The mother of GMA Network president and CEO Atty. Felipe Gozon, Carolina passed away at age 97 last December 19. During her wake at the Heritage chapels, her granddaughter, lawyer Annette Gozon-Abrogar, shared with us treasured memories about her grandmother.

While Carolina doted on her grandkids, she was also strict, particularly with the earlier batch. She chased away with broomsticks the suitors of her granddaughters, especially if those squires did not measure up to her standards.

Fortunately for Annette, by the time she came around her grandma already hit the quota for being a disciplinarian of a lola. “Maybe she already got tired during my time,” recalls Annette.

Atty. Abrogar, who now heads GMA Films, perhaps didn’t really need that much disciplining (we can check with her father Felipe and mother Tessie). Carolina probably sensed that this granddaughter was going to excel at everything she did: Graduating valedictorian and summa cum laude (always with honors) during her entire academic life. We can only also surmise that during the courtship stage Annette’s husband, Lito Abrogar, didn’t have a difficult time dating Carolina’s precious granddaughter. The grandma most likely felt he was going to be great husband material to Annette and be a responsible father to their kids: Anja and Andy. As it turned out, grandmas really knew best.

The fact that she had an easier time with her lola isn’t the reason for Annette’s fondness for the grandmother. Carolina wasn’t the type of granny who baked cookies, cakes and pies for the grandchildren. She knew that sugar was bad for them.

Since the matriarch was into gardening more than cooking, she gave the grandkids the sweetest aratiles straight from her farm. Even then she knew the benefits of organic produce.

From Malabon, Carolina was a woman who was ahead of her time. Maybe because she was married to the late Secretary of Agriculture, Benjamin Gozon, with whom she is now reunited in heaven, she was inspired to work the land she inherited from her side of her family, the Santoses and the Lapuses. Aside from managing rice fields, she also planted coffee seedlings.

A pharmacy graduate from UST, she formulated the best patis (fish sauce) — excess products from her fishponds. She also worked on salt beds — even gravel and sand. While obviously bright, she didn’t simply rely on intelligence in her determination to succeed in life. Carolina was also hardworking and frugal (but never stingy, clarifies Annette). At the same time, she also loved sharing her blessings with the underprivileged and had her list of favorite charities.

Her best achievement in life, however, was to have raised responsible and God-fearing (they are Protestants) children, among them lawyer Felipe, who must really be so loved and respected in the TV industry that even rival Manny Pangilinan went out of his busy schedule to condole with the family during the wake.

Of course, all the GMA executives were also present and the night we visited, we did the vigil with another Felipe — GMA Network executive VP and CFO Felipe Yalong, who came with his pretty wife Ofelia.

 While we hesitate to begin the year by doing an in memoriam piece, we cannot pass up the chance to give tribute to one of the pioneering women in this country and so that her attributes may be assimilated by the younger generation who must be seeking role models this third day of 2012.

The life of Carolina Lapus Gozon is one to emulate.