GINA FERNANDEZ GATMAITAN REMEMBERS

        37 years after graduating from Assumption College in 1987, I was back in the chapel at San Lo, celebrating Mass on Assumption Day 2024.  Having lived in the US for 36 years (after a one-year stint of teaching at Assumption Antipolo), participating in Velada activities was never a privilege for an overseas based schoolteacher like me!

        During this trip, I discovered some mementos that belonged to my late mother (Amalia deLeon HS ’53) during her elementary and HS years at Heran.  My sister (Gretchen Fernandez HS ’84) and I decided that the best place for these items was the Assumption Museum.

      The energy level was high in the reception room after the Mass.  The auction was going on, the aroma of siomai, pancit and Assumption tart filled the air and ol’ girls catching up.  After asking so many people, I finally found Sr. Regivic.  I introduced myself and my eldest son, Jacob, and handed her my Mom’s memorabilia.    I told her that I hadn’t been back in San Lo since college graduation and just recently learned that there was a museum!

      “Really? Then you must see it!”, she announced.  She proceeded to look for someone to fetch her the keys.  All the festivities outside melted away as my son and I immersed ourselves in a private tour with our well-informed personal guide!

     Of everything that we talked about during our brief time together, I will always remember her response when I told her that I am a public school teacher.

    “Public school, huh?  You do good work”, she said and blessed me with a smile that reassured me that the engravement inside my HS graduation ring lives in me, Nihi Vivere Christus Est , “To me to live is Christ”!