God’s right-hand woman

When she came into this world, our mother had already given birth to three girls and two boys. After her birth came two more boys and two more girls. She became the "Ate", the loving and caring sister to us who came after her in a large family of ten children, helping our parents and elder sisters and brothers take care of the younger ones. She was my "Ate" Nelia, the elder sister immediately before me. We went to the same grade school in our early childhood years. As we walked to and from school she would take my hand every time we crossed the streets looking left and right first before dragging me along. In school during recess, she would sometimes look for me to share the "baon" prepared by our mama.

She set the pace for excellence and diligence in our studies. One night, she fell asleep while reviewing for her exams, toppled over from her chair and suffered a big, ugly cut on her lips. The indelible sight of her bleeding mouth was enough incentive for me to study more seriously and never to fall asleep while studying.

But it was really hard for me to keep pace with her drive for academic excellence, going only as far as matching her honors in grade school and high school. I could no longer measure up to her achievement thereafter. She took up Medicine and graduated magna cum laude, landing second place in the tough Medical Board Exams. I took up Law and didn’t even place in the Bar exams. Even as we pursued separate careers, I could feel her support through a healthy competition rather than a sibling rivalry.

Nel, as we endearingly called her, somehow exuded an inner strength arising out of an evidently strong faith, intense love for God and deep devotion to our Blessed Mother. I saw it rather poignantly when tragedy struck early in her married life. She was widowed at the age of 36 and left alone to bring up five children aged 2 to 9 years. Through the years she took care of them single-handedly balancing family life with her time-consuming career. Every hardship encountered along the way just made her faith and love for God even stronger. Never for a moment did I see her lose hope even as she struggled with serious problems in rearing her three girls and two boys who all grew up to be as God-loving, caring, responsible persons she wanted them to be. Her two boys, Peter and John Paul bear papal names. Two of the girls, Tina and Dottie must have imbibed her spiritual fervor as they became members of the Opus Dei. With Maria Luisa the sweet young wife and mother of four, they lovingly cared for their mother to the very end.

The most admirable and inspiring aspect of "Ate" Nel’s spirituality was her firm belief in the sanctity of marriage. Widowed at a young age, she could have married again if she wanted, but she did not. She remained true to her marital vows to her late husband Perry until it was time for them to be reunited again.

She must have been inspired and affected early in life by how mothers in this world lovingly endure the searing pains of pregnancy as exemplified by our own mama who tenderly cared in her womb God’s precious gift of life especially from the more difficult seventh to the tenth birth in the family. So when she took up medical course, she chose the branch of medicine dealing with the care and treatment of afflictions of women particularly those in pregnancy and childbirth. Indeed she attended to the births of the succeeding generations not only in our family but also in countless other families. She was so concerned with women in childbirth that she put up a clinic accessible to the poorer section of the community catering mostly to those who have less in life. She simply radiated a motherly instinct that valued human life the most, as clearly manifested by her total dedication to her OB-GYN profession. Even her students and co-professors in the UST College of Medicine called her "nanay", not Dra. Nelia Sison-Salvacion. To me she was one of the unsung but staunch pro-life heroines – truly one of God’s right-hand women bringing forth into this world the most precious gift of human life.

Good bye "Ate" Nel. Please extend your helping hand once more when it is time for us to cross from here to eternity of happiness in God’s loving presence.

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