Farewell
After a very brief hesitation, I had taken a leap of faith and accepted the invitation of newly reinstalled editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Lifestyle section, Thelma Sioson San Juan, to be a contributing editor and columnist for “S,” a new section aimed at senior readers and conceptualized by editor in chief Letty Jimenez Magsanoc.
I knew both Letty and Thelma socially, but never professionally, for a professional I had never been—Letty was a batchmate at St. Theresa’s and Thelma a fellow alumna from a much later batch and a close friend of my husband’s. I signed the contract with the Inquirer in 2011, and joined two other woman columnists for the section.
I had to think of a column title. Gilda Cordero Fernando had a catchy one, “Forever 81,” and Conchita Razon had “My Chair Rocks.” I chose “Not Quite There.”
Being, at 71, the youngest of the three, I was probably still in denial of my place in the arrangement for reasons of not just age, but qualification. I was in the company of established writers; me—I had not even begun to arrive. So, “Not Quite There” was in keeping not only with the context of the new section, but of my own newness.
At any rate, I couldn’t believe my luck. Our section had a big letter “S” at the top of the main page, but not for senior, which we all understood it was intended, but for “sexy,” “stimulating,” “sage,” and “survivor,” as explicitly promoted. I was given the title of “contributing editor,” which I tried to live up to by helping vet contributions.
Thrilled but terrified, I was sat down by my husband, Vergel, who knew perfectly I had never held a job in my life, let alone one that involved meeting deadlines, and told me, “This is a contract, a weekly commitment you have signed up to fulfill and cannot just end without ruining yourself.” I needed that. I was oblivious; I only wanted to be read!
I made sure we had a lively page. I wrote articles, apart from the column, about interesting seniors and their continuous, vigorous participation in making the world a better place. I featured interviews of seniors eager to add their voices to the current conversations. Vergel was not seldom inspired to come up with humorous cartoons and caricatures to illustrate my pieces. We still had the luxury of space, at least a whole broadsheet spread.
Change
But change was catching up to the newspaper business—and us. The costs of paper publishing were becoming impossible to meet. Cost-cutting became imperative for survival. Meanwhile, Letty passed away. Minyong Ordoñez, our lone male columnist, and Gilda followed. Thelma saw the inevitable future of print and soon left, and put up an online site of interesting features, TheDiarist. Conchita retired, but got busier in retirement, producing a collection of her writings and a family book. Now and then, she contributes to TheDiarist, as does Vergel.
Digital being the way of the future, our senior readers, who grew up reading on a printed paper page, developing the happy habit of doing that with their morning coffee, began to be outdated themselves.
In February 2020, I celebrated my 80th birthday, in my cousin’s hotel, which had been once her grandparents’ fabulous home, on Vito Cruz Street. For many of my guests, that was their last big party of the year. COVID-19 was already in the air; it would become a national scourge by April. Among my 80 guests—old classmates, family, friends—were my nine partners in First Draft, a writing club formed by Gilda, which met every month, each with a draft to read for collective appreciation and critiquing.
On Aug. 4, 2020, Gilda herself, our mentor and muse, would leave us, at age 90; Minyong had gone earlier, at only 76, three years into our section’s fairly long run. Conchita and I had held the fort until it was shrunk to one page. Then there was me alone. Inevitably, the usual 30-day courtesy notice came: It ends today.
But “Not Quite There” will not be quite there even so. I intend to take it to the next stage of my long life, until it reaches the tomorrow that never comes.
To all my readers and the Inquirer, thank you!
