DanR100

Celebrating Dr. Dionisia A. Rola's 100th Birthday

November 1, 2020 

For My Ninang Dan

Normally, I'm distracted.

I go down a rabbit hole when I’m shopping and go in for a gallon of milk and come out with Twix chocolate bars and floral dish towels. 

It’s true.

Once I was late for Vacation Bible School because I went in for cookies and ended up spending an hour checking out the new SHINEShiny lip gloss colors. Or I'd go down the basement storage to retrieve a roll of tissues and totally lose track of time browsing through dusty pages of old foto albums.

Sigh.

BUT NOT TODAY.

It was Ninang Dan's 100th birthday celebration. A surprise Zoom session with 35 or so faculty and students who had been under her wing was scheduled at 5 pm, Philippine time. For me here in Ohio, this translated into four hours past dark thirty.

Of course, I was EXCITED. I was doing cartwheels with my heart.

Like the first time I realized I could wear white pants before and after Labor Day.

And chalk came in colors.

And zucchini could be made into bread.

When I didn't blink.

When I focused.

In my mind's eye, I clearly saw snippets of those years with Ninang Dan.

She said, per a classmate, that never in the history of English 199 had she given a grade of 1. It was for my final paper on recurrent imagery in Blake's writings. Then she asked, Who is this Adoracion Torio? (FYI: the class met only a few times at the beginning; the rest of the semester was allotted for writing papers).

Thus emboldened, with Pond's cream foundation, dressed in a then-fashionable A-line dress, and my hair hiked up to the ceiling - the crowning glory to an incredible ensemble - I went to see her.

I must have made a good impression because she asked if I wanted to teach in UP after I graduated. Excitedly, I said, Yes. She said, Write me a letter of application.

Upon my completion of two years of teaching, she asked, Would you be interested in a faculty fellow local Rockefeller scholarship? Elated, I said, Yes, thank you!

Come time for me to go back teaching, she said, Why don't you go with me to UP Baguio? She had just moved up to be Dean. Again, I said, Of course.

After a year there, it was my time to ask her, Would you please be my Ninang on my wedding day? She said, Yes.

Today, I made sure that I honored all that wonderful history. In fact, I put together a schedule of my time to stay focused. Here was how it went.

Saturday

10:30 pm     Set coffee maker's brew timer to 3 am.

10:45 pm     Watched YouTube Funny Dog videos.

11 pm          Went to bed.

Sunday

2 am            Smelled coffee. Coffee maker didn't know to fall back. Darn.

3:10 am       Realized I was still asleep and not drinking coffee.

3:15 am       Got out of bed.

3:25 am       Watched YouTube Top News to see if I missed anything while I was

                    sleeping.

3:35 am        Searched for outfit that would make me look the skinniest for Zoom

                    session. Frowned at the design choice of mixing stripes with florals.

                    Pronounced it so 2015. Decided PJ bottom ok (no one noticed, 

                    hopefully).

3:50 am       Chose perfect red lipstick, making sure it wasn’t on my teeth.

3:55 am       Logged in to Zoom. 

And my favorite part of writing this post was when I was done.

When I thought I had said all that I needed to say and just when I was going to click publish...

... I had to say one more thing. A Post Script.

Just a little extra something.

P.S.

Dean Rola, Dr. Rola, Ninang Dan: Thank you for having been part of my life. I owe YOU and I love YOU.