Paola’s story

MANILA, Philippines - On Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1991, our beloved daughter, Paola, at the tender age of 27, returned to her maker. I was heartbroken but still thanked the Lord for having taken her in such an inspiring manner.

Paola seems to have been a special gift from above. Arturo and I were married in Rome and lived there for six months. A couple of months after we were married, I suspected I had become pregnant. Pope John XXIII had just passed away and the following consistory was taking place. I had made an appointment for a frog test (the pregnancy test during those days). On the way to the doctor, I noticed that people were rushing towards the Vatican. I knew then that a new pope had been elected. We decided to join the crowds and forego the doctor’s appointment. I had to find a trash can to dispose of my bottle of urine.

Pope Paul VI was the newly elected Pope. We received his first blessing, and there and then, I promised to name the expected baby Paolo or Paola. This is the reason why Paola’s name was spelled the Italian way.

Paola was due on Feb. 13, 1964. We were back in the Philippines then. On Feb. 11, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, she kicked so hard in my womb that she ruptured my water bag. It was as if she wanted to be born on that day. I was rushed to the hospital and had to be induced since I still had no signs of labor. As a result of this, she was baptized Paola Maria Lourdes.

Paola was an unusual child. She stood up at six months and at nine months she was walking around. When she turned a year we gave her a party and she was already greeting her visitors and eagerly receiving her gifts.

As she grew she brought us a lot of joy because she always was so entertaining and funny. In her young teens, a Japanese artist who had exhibited at our Luz Gallery gave her his Japanese camera when he went back to Japan. That started her love of photography and when she turned 18, she celebrated with an exhibition of her photographs at our gallery.

As a photographer, she got involved with taking portraits of showbiz people, and before we knew it, she became a part of showbiz herself by becoming a pop singer. Her shows were entertaining because she included a lot of comic spiels in between her songs.

A transformation took place in the late ‘80s when news of the happening at Medjugorje (apparitions of the Virgin Mary were reported in Bosnia and Herzegovina) got to her. Suddenly she became charismatic, attending Mass daily at her favorite church, Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park. She would never miss Mass, even when she had an out-of-town gig. She would also spend hours at the church’s prayer room, even spending time there late at night, after holding a concert.

She had become close to Fr. James Reuter because of my long association with him. She then asked him to perform a ceremony to offer her chastity and virginity to our Blessed Mother.

All this began two years before her health failed. She developed high blood pressure and it was discovered she had a tumor in her adrenal gland. Dr. Augusto Sarmiento decided to do surgery. I waited outside the operating room; Arturo happened to be away on a grant.  Dr. Sarmiento emerged from the operating room to tell me that he had opened and closed the incision, because the tumor was so large that he was afraid she would die on the operating table if he tried to do anything. I was devastated.

When word got around about her condition, unsolicited financial donations poured in from caring friends. It was so touching. Because of the generosity of friends I was able to take her to the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Center in New York. Paola faced her illness with unbelievable fortitude. She never became bitter but still thanked the Lord for allowing her to share His sufferings on the cross.

Nothing could be done for her at Sloan-Kettering. They told me that they never had any success with her type of cancer, and just advised me to take her back home.

By the time she had taken sick, Paola had moved into her own apartment. She was staying in Palm Village, Makati. I visited her every day while she was sick. A lay minister from San Antonio Church would visit her every day to give her communion. On weekends, either Fr. Reuter or a priest from San Antonio would say Mass for her at her apartment.

On Aug. 28, 1991, she lapsed into a coma. Dr. Cenon Cruz had visited her regularly for pain management. I had given instructions that she not be taken to a hospital for any reason. They had told me at Sloan-Kettering that she was dying and I did not want to see my daughter dying with a lot of tubes attached to her. Amazingly, she lapsed into a coma and three hours later she expired. It was about three in the afternoon. Again, it seemed as if her agony paralleled Christ’s last hours on the cross.

It was the Feast of St. Augustine and I wondered why it was St. Augustine who got her. The first letter of condolence that I received came from Techie Velasquez. She quoted St. Augustine’s words: “Do not grieve for me for the life I have just ended. Rather rejoice for the life I am about to begin.” I felt that I got the answer to my question about why it was St. Augustine who got her.

After her passing we found, among the writings she left behind, a request to the Lord to give her one more year to be with her mom.  Her struggle with cancer did last a year and a half.

On the 28th anniversary of her birth the next year, I had attended a meeting at the Ayala Museum and, from there, I was heading to a Mass at San Antonio, where Paola’s ashes lie in the crypt. When my driver arrived to pick me up, he handed me an envelope, which he said arrived for me as he was leaving the house.  It was a “thank you” card from Nena del-Rosario Villanueva, who had just lost a daughter. The card carried the quote from St. Augustine as well but this time it included the preceding line which read: “I love you here in heaven as I did on earth.”

My birthday is just five days after Paola’s. The Paulist Fathers publish a yearly book that they call 365 Days with the Lord. That year was a leap year so it was 366 days. That year’s book carried Paola’s story on the page of my birthday, Feb. 16. A cousin had called me about it thinking that it had been done with my collaboration. I knew nothing about it, but was able to secure the book later. I was amazed to see that Paola’s story was the only one about the Philippines. This book carries a story on every page.

All these happenings have assured me that Paola is up there, always reaching out for me.

The Luz family: National Artist for Visual Art Arturo Luz, Claudia, Paola, author Tessie, Luisa and Angela