Turning pain into art

MANILA, Philippines - Pain is universal. Everybody hurts, but what sets people apart is how they deal with pain. Some give up and succumb to it, while others overcome it and emerge as stronger people.

Sixty-five year old filmmaker and environmentalist Eufemia “Minnie” Solomon Crouse is an example of the latter. For her, pain didn’t only bring sorrow; it also be fueled art and other positive things.

A survivor of two hip replacements, sexual abuse, depression, a separation, and now a brain tumor, Minnie showcased her pain in an art exhibit and film showing of her works last month in her alma mater, the University of Baguio.

Aside from her works – a collection of photographs, pictures of her medical journey, a nude painting showing her surgical scars, her award-winning documentary about a toxic chemical victim, and six other films on her life experiences – she also brought with her friends from the film industry to share their knowledge and experience with the students.

They included TV and film director Maryo de Los Reyes, writer and producer Raymond Lee, independent filmmaker Emman dela Cruz, playwright and screenwriter Nick Pichay, production designer Adelaida Lim, University of the Philippines Film Institute head Ed Lejano, and actor Yul Servo.

They all met Minnie around 2002, when her documentary “The Case of Wilkie Duran Monte: Toxic Chemical Victim” won at the Cinemanila International Film Festival and Brussels International Film Festival. They were immediately drawn to the then 56-year-old Minnie, limping around with a cane or a walker, whose smile and voice revealed a passion for life they had never seen before.

Like a child, she talked about her dreams in an uninhibited, fearless, and imaginative way. Nothing could stop her from fulfilling her vision for herself and the arts, she said, not even her age, her disability, and other medical conditions.

They were struck and inspired by her courage. And ever since, they had been both fans and friends to Crouse.

In the exhibit, hundreds of students from University of Baguio and nearby Saint Louis University and the University of Cordilleras got a glimpse of her life as portrayed on canvass and on film. 

After her first hip replacement due to an accident in 1987, she was diagnosed with a rare bone disease called avascular necrosis or death of bone. In 2008, doctors found out she had a brain tumor, which was impeding her sense of sight, and that she also had a blood disorder.

Aside from physical pain, she also had to endure emotional pain in her life. At a young age, she was pressured to provide a better life for her family of 14 (two parents and eleven siblings). After finishing one year in her two-year radio operator course in Baguio, the 18-year-old lass from Pangasinan went to Manila and became the first-ever woman licensed technician of the Radio Philippines Network and Globe Mackay ITT.

A scholarship would then send her to the United States in the late 1960s. There she was intent to make a career in a field dominated by men. Her co-workers would belittle her educational background and she wasn’t confident about her English, but Crouse was focused to be successful for the loved ones she left behind.

In 1972, she married Everett Crouse, a band leader in the US Navy. She already had a son from a relationship back in Baguio. Minnie and Everett would have their own son and Everett would help Minnie bring her whole family from Pangasinan to the US.

It was a challenge for headstrong and independent Minnie to play the role of a submissive wife in an interracial marriage. The 1987 accident added to her already mounting frustrations in life, but it was the sexual abuse she suffered from a hospital technician while recovering from surgery that really plunged her into depression. She became suicidal.

Her youngest son, Edward, trying to help her move on, told her to “get out of her cage.” She did. She ran away and asked for a divorce. Everett refused, but allowed her to go. And as she rediscovered herself through volunteering in charities and foundations, she found new life in the field of tourism and filmmaking. She would find true love aboard a cruise ship, and finally settle in the Philippines with the “love of her life,” Cielo Lumacad, who happened to be a musician just like Everett.

Using her pain, Minnie was not only able to fulfill her dreams but she also helped others achieve their own. Last year, she opened the Olang Arts Park, a five-hectare property she has developed to become the arts and nature hub in Siquijor. With the help of her friends, she has organized art workshops for local residents, especially children, to inspire them to continue dreaming, despite all the pain that life may bring.