Doctora Thely’s legacy

It isn’t every day that one can wish someone a Happy 93rd Birthday, so I’m glad to exercise that privilege this week. 

On Saturday, Oct. 11, Dra. Thelma Navarrete-Clemente, one of the most accomplished ladies in our country, marks her natal day; the throwback doffs a cap to her birth at the Philippine General Hospital in 1921. Only fitting, too, as she went on to study, graduate from, and serve with distinction in that institution — which she still continues to support with her organizational skills, leadership, and philanthropy.

“Thelma was the first of ten children born to Ursula (Frank) and her husband, Nicolas Navarrete of Panjulo (now Panghulo), Obando, Bulacan. At the time of her birth PGH was 11 years old, fairly new by building life-span standards, having opened its doors on Sept. 10, 1910.

“… The newborn baby girl had not the slightest inkling then that 24 years later, she would do her parents proud by graduating from the UP College of Medicine, on her way to affixing that precious letter-suffix — MD — to her name.”

Those paragraphs come from the first chapter of a coffee-table biography cum corporate milestones, titled Thely and Her Legacy: The CMC. The book will be launched at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the Capitol Medical Center founded in 1970 by Thely, the nickname that stuck after the initial Thelmy.

Illustrious guests are expected to attend this advance celebration of her birthday, among them former Finance secretary, DBP chair and NEDA director-general Jesus Estanislao, with whom Dra. Navarrete-Clemente had served in the DBP Board upon her appointment in 1986 by then President Corazon C. Aquino.

Other guests include Speaker Sonny Belmonte, Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte, former Manila Mayor Fred Lim, Dr. Tony Oposa, Dr. Jimmy Galvez-Tan and Atty. Alex Padilla, among others. 

I regret my non-attendance, as I’ll be out of the country. But I trust that Joey San Juan of House Printers will represent the small crew that crafted the book in a span of over two years, and deliver the remarks in behalf of researcher and writer Tess Dumana, book designer Orland Punzalan (who’s based in Singapore), principal photographer Hedwig de Leon, Rafael Luis Bawagan who was responsible for the cover’s CMC building images, and this writer as executive editor.

Over those years of production, I can say that it was much fun and little hair-wringing despite all the delays. We wanted a good book. We wound up with an excellent one.

The first meetings with Dra. Thely were remarkable, as we quickly found out that she could still give the full names of every single teacher she had from Grade One. She recalled and recited poems she learned from them, and recollected every single detail of her early years in the heart of Manila, where she eventually established her first medical facility, the Holy Family Maternity Clinic in 1950.

I marveled at her paintings that adorned the office walls, then turned verdigris with envy when she let on that one of those floral renditions in oil was actually Tita Cory’s — for which Thely had exchanged a painting of hers.   

I must express the utmost gratitude to Tess Dumana, who handled most of the interviews and rendered the principal text. In my capacity as executive editor, I also had the privilege of accompanying Hedwig de Leon and our subject to the hospital’s chapel, as well as the capacious boardroom and what first looked like a stockroom until we realized that the treasure it held consisted of the innumerable trophies, medals and plaques Dra. Thely had accumulated over the decades. 

On the day the book is launched, even more regrettable is that Thely’s lifetime partner, Luis Clemente, cannot be there, as he passed away nearly two years ago. But we have the book to give life to their romance and saga of a partnership. The following are excerpts. 

* * *

Thely was deep in her medical studies at the University of the Philippines when she met Luis Clemente, a lad from Calamba, Laguna. Luis was staying with his cousins in Tondo, not far from where the Navarretes lived. They met and struck a friendship at what they called “everybody’s party,” a strictly 3-to-6 p.m. social function in the neighborhood. Open to all, the party was where young people came to eat and dance and have fun; it was also where love blossomed from friendships born at the buffet table or the dance floor. Everybody’s Party was the soil on which the Luis-Thely friendship was sown and nurtured.

The young Thely certainly did not fit the mold of the typical teenager of her time. She claims that she had no crushes, although she and her sisters did have male friends from school and around the neighborhood.

Luis was her first and only boyfriend, if boyfriend he was at all. No real courtship took place, says Thely, at least not the traditional courtship of that time that has been written about and romanticized in movies and stage skits, of swains fetching water from a distant well to impress a lady love and endear himself to her parents, or cutting firewood for the kitchen, or serenading her with a love song on a moonlit night….

What Luis did was visit Thely at UP where she dormed, spending hours there, waiting patiently for her to wrap up her class or her “duty.” As the days and months passed, the visits became more frequent. Sometimes Luis stayed on so late that he had to sleep over at the men’s dorm, on a bed left empty by a friend on hospital duty, because it was too much of a death wish to walk the streets at night knowing that there were Japanese soldiers lurking in the dark who would only be too glad to oblige.

… Thely and Luis contented themselves with hearing Mass at the St. Thomas More chapel at the Ateneo campus on Padre Faura, a brief walk from the UP campus. The closest to a date they had was walking to the Aristocrat Restaurant on Dewey Boulevard (now Roxas Boulevard) for their favorite pancit and halo-halo.

April 26, 1945 started out as just another day for Thely. She was on duty at the North General Hospital, doing her work in her characteristic efficient way when Luis arrived and did something so unplanned, so unexpected, it transformed Thely’s day from ordinary to momentous.

Luis had come to propose, to ask for Thely’s hand in marriage. Though she was convinced that he “had proved himself worthy” of her love and was serious about her, she had not thought that a marriage proposal was in the air. “Japanese time” just was not the right time for such an important occasion. But Luis was not about to take any chances. Thely surmises that he must have felt threatened by the American men stationed at the North General Hospital. He must have thought that the only way he could secure their relationship was to make Thely his wife.

If Luis’ bold move was stunning, Thely’s response was equally so. She did not reject the proposal, but she did not give her assent either. What she did was ask Luis to seek her parents’ nod. It was another concrete gesture of surrender to her parents’ will.

The young man, obviously dead-set on marrying his lady, wasted no time. The following morning, an excited, and expectant, Luis went to the Navarrete home to do Thely’s bidding. He must have known all along that he had won her parents’ hearts enough for them to give him their blessings with no second thought. What was even more surprising, in a most pleasant way, was that they wanted the wedding to take place at once, ora mismo. It was a happy coincidence that Luis’ sense of urgency was matched in full measure by that of Thely’s parents.  

* * *

Decades later, with her husband Luis’ help, Thelma Navarrete-Clemente, M.D., established Capitol Medical Center as the fulfillment of her public service. Its continuing suceess rounds off her sterling reputation as a Renaissance lady — from good daughter and student to woman of faith, devoted wife and mother, dedicated doctor, inspiring leader, artist and philanthropist. Her life story spanning nine decades has been nothing short of remarkable.

Indeed, as “doctor, president of various organizations, Philippine representative to international conferences, and the guiding light of the Capitol Medical Center, TNC has seen it all, done it all, and shows inspiring leaderhip everywhere.”

One more passage in the book has to be shared, in Thely’s own voice:

“My greatest professional advantage in the practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology is my being a woman.

“A woman is more understanding, more sympathetic, more compassionate, and more intuitive. The women I assist at childbirth and with diseases of the reproductive system feel secure in my care. And I believe that I can help them, for they know that I am aware of a mother’s fears, anxieties, and pains, being a mother myself. Only a woman can be a mother. She has many roles to play — doctor, nurse, guidance counselor, preacher, model, confessor, friend, companion to her husband, mother to her children. In the practice of my profession, all these roles are rolled into one.”

Yes, we are grateful. Thanks to the bold women in the distant past who blazed trail after trail in the practice of medicine, and to the women who followed their path, Thelma Navarrete-Clemente among them.