Buti pa si Lola

Lola, 77, returns to school
Dreaming to be a nurse at 85

By Carla Gomez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:19:00 07/12/2009
Filed Under: Education, Senior Citizens, Nursing matters

BACOLOD CITY—THE ONLY TIME THE student asked to be excused from class was when she had to get her pension.

Teacher Nena Perez, 34, is talking about Rizalina Marba, or Lola Saling, a 77-year-old grandmother attending Pilipino class at the Luisa Medel National High School in Bacolod City.

“She is a good and determined student,” Perez says.

For Marba, a resident of Purok Rojas, Barangay Tangub, Bacolod, it’s never too late to pursue a dream. She is back in high school as a first-year student after 61 years.

Her ambition: To become a nurse when she turns 85—if God gives her the strength, Marba says.

“Ever since I was a child, I have dreamed of wearing a white uniform and cap, and of being able to heal people,” she says.

But her education was abruptly cut when she was 16 years old and her mother made her marry a man she barely knew and did not love.

So, nine children and 26 grandchildren later, Marba has decided to enroll in high school because it is never too late for anything if God allows it, she says.

Her classmates are 12- and 13-year-olds and her teachers—who also call her “lola (grandmother)”—are old enough to be her children or grandchildren, says Alberto Casaquite, the school principal.

While she has been very serious about her studies, Marba has had to get used to noisy classmates, Perez says.

Dressed in her school uniform—blue skirt, white blouse, white socks and black shoes—Marba says that in her elementary days, she and her classmates, one of whom was the late Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon, were more disciplined.

They listened to the teacher and did not make noise in the classroom, she recalls.

“My classmates now are very noisy. Sometimes, they make me dizzy. At snack time, they eat junk food. I tell them that if they take a full breakfast and eat healthy food, that would be much better than eating junk food,” Marba says.

Her young classmates, however, enjoy Marba’s company because she tells them stories about the past. Read More>>>

====>>I say wow! If only everybody would be as determined as this Lola, maybe the world would have a much brighter future after-all. Imagine, at 77 years of age she did not stop reaching for her dreams.

And I feel so ashamed to think that at 20, I am already discouraged to continue schooling simply because I'm so lazy to wake myself up every morning. But bilib din ako eh, she wasn't in love but they had nine children.