A SPECIAL GIRL OF THE LORD: Our dear BING

By: Danny S. Villanueva

All of us as individual creation of God are special to our Maker. As a parent, one of the amazing part of my life is to see the hands of the Lord directing and shaping the life of my children. On her birthday, today, allow me to share with you some snapshots on the life of my daughter, Mary Claire, aka Bombing or Bing, who is always in God's wonderful hands.

· When I enrolled Ten-ten, her sister, who was 6 then, at the Yamaha School of Music in Buendia, Makati, Bing likewise showed interest to play the piano. In due time, she was enrolled, too and played very well at 5 years of age. Sabi nga, she would read the musical notes better than the alphabets. After 6 months, she gave a recital with the rest of the students of Yamaha. I would say the she was the youngest among then.

· When Bing was in grade I up to II at St. Joseph Catholic School in Gagalangin, Tondo, her grades were not that really good. She complained about not being able to hear and see the class discussion. Sabrie was able to ask her teacher to have her seated in front thinking that she might not have the right focus during classes. Still her problem persisted. What came to our mind was to get her eyes and ears checked by an EENT doctor. The good eye doctor immediately noticed her failing eyesight. She was immediately given corrective glasses that were so thick that time (700 level). Behold… aside from the eyesight, her hearing immediately improved greatly. Her grades soared up and in God's time and became a consistent honor student, top of the class up to grade V.

In 1990, I have to go to Tarlac to put up my new manufacturing company then. Sabrie and I decided that we bring the whole family to Tarlac together with Tatay and Nanay (well, Tatay and Nanay decided later to stay in Tondo, this is another beautiful story). Ten just graduated in elementary and the others were still in the lower grades. But Bing, an honor student would be graduating that year with possibility of being the salutatorian or valedictorian. If we would transfer her that school year to Tarlac, she would lose that much sought honor and this was a possible problem with her. But not really a problem. She seemed very obedient to us with no qualms at all. All of us, particularly Sabrie and me, might have said "sayang" for the great school honors intended for her. She knew the consequences. That early tender age, she gave out love, self-denial and charity to others, in God's loving grace, to give way to a higher need: togetherness of family in Tarlac.

· In no time, I was able to get all the kids to the College of the Holy Spirit-Tarlac (the first CHS in the country). Transferring them to CHS was not that easy. Thanks to some help from our new friends in Tarlac (wife of the Governor and the owner of the bungalow we're renting). For Bing, it was not smooth sailing then. The school registrar hesitated to accept her for their policy would not allow transfer of graduating students. So I asked personally to take her in as an exceptional case. With my persistence, the Sis. Rector intervened and agreed to accept Bing as long she would pass the 2 validating exams: for grade V (test for promotion to gradeVI) and for grade VI ( for promotion to 1st year high school) to be given on that day. I agreed and prayed, though I have confidence on Bing and faith on God's saving grace. She passed them, with flying colors. She noted that the questionnaires carried "printed in the USA. I told her that those were IQ exams. The Rector was happy to get her in.

· Bing excelled in her studies with very good grades. She knew all the while that she would not be able to receive any honors upon graduation in elementary for she would lack the required number of years of stay in CHS. She breezed through high school of the CHS with excellent grades, always on the top 5 of her class in the cream section. She did most of the caricatures and art work for their Year Book. During her graduation, no academic honor was given her. No problem, for lo and behold, the school gave her special recognition as the school official organist for Holy Masses. During the graduation ceremonies, she played well and brought the whole congregation to a seemingly glorious celebration with the Lord. Thank you Lord.

· She passed the entrance exam in UP-Diliman that many of the honored students from CHS-Tarlac, Don Bosco Institute-Tarlac (also the 1st Don Bosco in RP) and the Tarlac State University tried but failed. Though she's good in English, math, science and social studies, she preferred to take up Fine Arts, her first love. As part of the Fine Arts enrolment requirement, a "talent" exam has to be passed, so we brought her for such test. We came late at about 10 am. We learned that the exam started at 7 am. She was allowed to take the exam and completed all the required drawings in no time, almost at the same time with the rest. I saw that her rendition were much better than the rest (o bias lang ako). After a couple of days, she learned that she failed the said exam. She noticed that she failed to print her name on all the plates she made. Wow, mali! Reflecting- that was not the plan of the Lord for her.

· The good UP lady registrar allowed her to further choose other courses (normally not done). With my guidance, she chose Landscape Architecture- maraming drawing din yun. So be it and we enrolled her. Came the need to get her to have a dorm inside the campus- mas mura pa kaysa sa labas ng campus, within distance to the school buildings and most specially, I would not like her to commute that long travel- considering her poor eye sight.

The prerequisite for a student to be accepted to the UP dormitories are: the student must be an honor student, from a poor family, from a public school. I submitted my income tax return (true copy; would not classify as poor for the average native). The Sampaguita dorm administrator politely told me during the interview of the parents' applicants that she could not accept us for failing to meet the requirements. I told her that Bing is a brilliant and very talented child but with very poor eyesight with glasses of 700 grade. Allowing her to commute from Tondo (Ten was staying then in Bugallon) to UP and back, would expose her to various dangers. Naawa naman siya and processed her admission papers. Thanks God.

· Bing excelled in all her subjects except PE (but this is another trying story, but overcame eventually). She hesitated to immediately jump into working her thesis, a prerequisite for graduation. She thought that she needed another semester or a year to work on it, just like the rest of her friends and other graduating students. I persuaded her to do it on time. I eventually helped her go through all the rudiments of completing a real good thesis- research, going around meeting resource persons, taking photos, interviews and proving and pacing the site. With many and long sleepless nights, her friends helped her, too. The rest was history, she passed with high grades during a formal presentation, complete with all the modern and creative presentation tools and materials (also we got Manila Catering Service for the foods and drinks). During the question and answer, I was kind of tempted to help answer difficult questions but she was cool, composed, prepared and handled everything superbly. The Holy Spirit was all the time with her. Thanks Lord.

· When she was looking for an architectural company to complete some number of hours on-the- job experience as a prerequisite for taking the govt. board exam, she was hired instead by the top landscape architectural firm in the country. Then again, she hesitated to immediately take the board and to delay it to next year. She felt unprepared for the board exam right after talking with her lady boss-partner (UP grad, too) about the possibility of passing. I impressed on her to immediately go for the board exam. Obediently, she filed for a short leave to review for the board and review she did well with her friends. The rest was history. She just topped the board examination. Her lady boss later left the firm. Bing eventually occupied her office and absorbed her responsibilities, too. Thank you, Lord for making it happen for Bing, and for us, too. Praise you Lord Jesus.

Happy birthday, our dear Bing! Anak, keep up the good work in Jesus name always (the secret of success). # DSV