The light and wisdom of a woman diplomat

I love listening to anecdotes and read about stories of people older than me. Some of my closest friends are in a decade of what author Roger Rosenblatt describes the “October of aging” – in their 80’s – like my parents. Perhaps it’s because of my parents, or of my friends or of Mr. Rosenblatt’s essays that I am becoming more fascinated with how people are aging gracefully by defying their biological clock and mental acumen.

A recent engagement was with Ambassador Delia Domingo Albert. While she is known as DFA’s first female foreign minister, I regard her as one of the hubby’s esteemed mentors. About 20 years ago, from a conference in Bangkok, she took an effort to drop him off at home then gave me fresh orchids and sweet-spicy tamarind for pasalubong. After an APEC meeting in Mexico, she sent me a multicolored ethnic bracelet which I still wear these days.

Above thoughtful gifts, I cherish the inspiration drawn from nostalgia, which matters in this age of instantaneous discourses. With age comes wisdom and experience so when these two are meshed into engrossing conversations, delight and inspiration follow.

Secretary Albert was quite apologetic when she warmly welcomed us at the doorstep of her lovely home. A part of their 60-year-old house needed an urgent repair and the noise from the renovation would interfere with our conversation. We drove to the nearby country club to dine by the golf course where the view was refreshing with the fire tree in bloom and drizzles in between.

Over a healthful lunch of pinangat and grilled pompano, bangus, fresh lumpia and fresh buko shake, I listened to her and the hubby talk about current events, the UN, ASEAN, of an upcoming event in the South Pacific, until I asked a curious question that bounced the banters to her days with the DFA.

Secretary Albert recollected how, fresh from her studies in Japan, she was asked during a diplomatic soiree to introduce the secretary of foreign affairs. She was given a prepared spiel which she found simple. Her creative, 18-year-old self enhanced the script by introducing the guest of honor in four different foreign languages, to the amazement of the audience. Ambassador Narciso Ramos, who was secretary of Foreign Affairs that time, was implausibly impressed. He right away invited the talented polyglot Delia Domingo to be his secretary. That set the trajectory of her stellar career in the DFA – from a staff employee to officer, consul, ambassador until reaching the apex and making history as the Philippines’ first female top diplomat.

At a time when patriarchy dominated the world of diplomacy and governance, DDA, as she is also known, advocated the rights of women. She shattered the glass ceiling by challenging an administrative policy that prevented female diplomats from marrying their foreigner fiancé. For Ambassador Albert, a woman diplomat need not choose between love and career. Both can coexist, as she has tactfully proven when she married the German editor, Hans Albert. I enjoyed listening to her love story, her chance meeting in the elevator with her late husband in Bucharest, where she and the late ambassador turned senator Letty Ramos-Shahani first opened the Philippine embassy.

Secretary Albert’s profound passion in her career must have sculpted her steadfast patriotic spirit from where flows her love and devotion to her husband, her only daughter Joy and two grandchildren she adores. I could only utter “oh wow” when she nonchalantly said the late US Secretary of State Colin Powell was one of the first to call and congratulate her when she was appointed DFA head or when she mentioned the initiatives for women she championed with the late Kofi Anan or Ban Ki Moon. She called them by their first names like friends eschewing honorific titles. She values their great friendship, her mantra being: “Invest in good relationships. Give if you can, reap if you may.”

Her ancestry as a hardworking Ilocana and over half a century of life in the diplomatic service are genuinely mirrored in refined arts adorning her home. Each memento came alive when DDA herself waxed lyrical about her favorite paintings from Lithuania; an Amorsolo obra – a gift from SGV’s grand old man, Washington Sycip – when she joined SGV upon retiring from the DFA; the elaborate quilt crafted from antique tapestries by women in Eastern Europe, inabel and ikat throw pillows and more. On top of a console are framed photographs of her with Pope John Paul II, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Dalai Lama, among others, while hanging on a stand are thousands of ID’s and lanyards she had collected over years of attending meetings and conferences, either as a delegate or a guest speaker.

After more than two decades of being a diplomat’s trailing spouse, I understand Secretary Albert’s sentimentality and picked practical ideas on how to meaningfully curate our mementos.

Secretary Albert’s active lifestyle is worth emulating. I learned about her legendary routine of taking the stairs from the ground floor to the 14th of the old DFA building. She started playing golf when she became our ambassador to Australia. Her piece of advice? “In playing golf, aim for the straight path, don’t hit hard because you’re aiming for a low score.” She’s petite with a towering presence (people we met at the country club stopped to greet her) and confidently strides in heeled summer sandals. Not surprising for someone in her mid 80’s who swims every day, navigates the streets of New York alone then at day end could still dance the night away at a diplomatic reception.

She’s hinted on working on her memoirs through her memorabilia collection instead of writing a book. I thought of how our generation of techies and digital nomads would find it appealing.

When the pictures speak for themselves, they might just inspire the youth to chart a career like hers: one that’s wrapped in brilliance and wisdom.