Rest in God's peace and love, Lydia
August 3 morning. After mass, we received this text messages from our friend Milena Inocencio-Domingo: " Lydia Yu-Jose passed away just a few hours ago. It seems like yesterday that Rico and Lydia were holding hands and exchanging sweetness at many Filipino gatherings…25 years of togetherness. Please kindly share the sad news with friends of Lydia or Rico. Lydia was an institution, and she will be sorely missed."
Lydia is Dr. Lydia N. Yu, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Japanese Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. Because of her outstanding contribution to Japanese Studies in the Philippines, the government of Japan conferred on her the decoration of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in 2012.
Lydia and her husband Rico Jose started their romance in Japan. A number of us who were also in Japan at the same time witnessed the start, the blossoming of their relationship, their wedding, and their happy married years.
We recall fondly seeing Lydia and Rico holding hands at the gate of Sophia University. Seeing them together then came as a happy surprise as that was the first public display of their relationship. Oh, the very happy look they both had on their faces that time! Then I also remember a very worried Rico who did not leave Lydia's side when she suddenly had a serious allergic episode during a dinner hosted by Filipino scholars for Dr. Jose V. Abueva.
From then on, we used to tease Lydia and Rico that they were so lovey-dovey together, they certainly showed us a thousand and more ways to hold hands! Lydia would blush whenever we teased them about how sweet they were as a couple.
We witnessed their simple yet beautiful wedding ceremony where our baritone and fellow Ministry of Education (Monbusho) scholar and Tokyo University Architecture Ph.d graduate, Mike Dakudao rendered a beautiful song for the lovely couple. Our children, Karlo and Aiko, then about 3 and 5 years old, also enjoyed playing with Lydia and Rico when they came to visit us at our Ikebukuro home. We also had the beautiful happy occasion to visit them in their home back in Cubao!
Professionally, Lydia and Rico continued to excel in their work as Japanese studies experts as evidenced by the books and other publications that they have completed, individually, as a team, in English and in the Japanese language.
While Rico continued to teach History at the University of the Philippines, where he is also currently serving as the Director of the Third World Studies Center, Lydia expertly chaired the Ateneo Department of Political Science and laid the groundwork of the Ateneo Center for Asian where she served as director from 2004-2013.
Tribute for Lydia, from colleagues and former students within the Philippines and throughout the world, has been pouring in. As Dr. Anne Candelaria, her colleague in Ateneo wrote, "Her memory will forever be honored through the lives she has touched."
Those who wish to send Lydia off to the Lord and those who wish to comfort Rico can do so during the funeral services for her at the Loyola Memorial today, Thursday, August 6, from 8 am.
When we first read the message about Lydia's passing on to the Lord, we felt so sad and cried. We continue to be teary-eyed when we remember her. Oh, how we miss her so much!
While Lydia is remembered by many as being tough and serious, including us who worked with her in the same research project organized by Prof. Setsuo Ikehata of the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages and Prof. Terafumi Terada of Sophia University, it is a smiling, even a blushing Lydia , that will always stay in our minds and in our hearts. We will always remember a very happy Lydia holding hands in a thousand and more ways with the love of her life, Rico.
May you now rest in God's eternal love and peace and thank you, Lydia. May God also continue to comfort Rico and those you have touched in your beautiful lifetime.
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