Flying high with Jhet

I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky – R. Kelly, "I Believe I Can Fly"

Jhet Torcelino van Ruyven, 46, is Nora Aunor, Oprah Winfrey and Cinderella rolled into one 4-ft.-10-in package of live energy, pure hope and boundless optimism.

Name a misfortune and it has once befallen Jhet. Name an episode of good fortune and it has certainly also rained upon Jhet, in numbers so plentiful they have erased every misfortune in her once-impoverished life. It’s like God had sent her a string of people and circumstances that bunched together to form one hard and powerful eraser that took out – in powerful strokes – all the sad lines and chapters in her story.

This triumph of fortune over misfortune, of happiness over sadness, of prosperity over poverty, and hope over despair is what you will find in Jhet’s easy-to-read, uplifting autobiography The Tale of Juliet, Juliet being her real name. It is a hard-to-put-down book, but you will put it down, just like I did, and bring it close to your heart, shake your head in awe and say, "Wow, ang suwerte naman talaga ng babaeng ito."

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It is not so much that Jhet, the eldest of 12 children born and raised in a nipa hut in Pader, Batangas with no running water or electricity, had the good fortune of meeting a kind-hearted priest, Monsignor Antonio "Derps" Unson, who made it possible for her to be a working intern in a convent school in Manila. Or that in the convent school, she finished a two-year medical secretarial course that led to her landing a job at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital, where she rose to become the executive secretary of its then medical director, Dr. Bill Billote. Dr. Bill not only allowed her to leave an hour early from work every day to attend night school, he also helped finance her schooling.

A change in administration in the hospital and a broken heart led her to accept a hardship post in a hospital in Yemen, where she not only was "pirated" by an oil firm to be an executive secretary, she was also swept off her feet by a man who shared her dreams, her religion and her goals, Dutch-born aviation (talk about jets!) expat Ted van Ruyven. Ted loved and accepted her for what she was and married her in a fairy tale wedding at the Manila Hotel in 1987. When Jhet’s father Amon was stranded in Catanduanes for his own mother’s funeral on the day of the wedding, Ted chartered a plane to fly him to Manila.

But lest you think it was only Prince Charming who made Jhet’s life a fairy tale, Jhet’s book shows she was and is a Cinderella who helped build her own castle. As founder and president of her own company Digi-print Graphics Plus, she continues to make her dreams come true.

Now, Jhet lives in a condominium of her own in Rockwell in Makati City whenever she is in the Philippines. She and Ted and their two daughters Michelle and Catherine live in a four-story beachfront home in British Columbia, Canada, where they are based. Living in a beachfront home is the ultimate material reward for Jhet, who used to peddle mangoes, bananas and peanuts on Matabungkay Beach in Batangas as a child. Some of her classmates lived in houses on the beach. While she was selling her wares on a bilao on her head, her classmates were frolicking on the sands. This scene was humiliating for her.

If only they could see her now.

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I call Jhet "masuwerte" because, like lampposts on a dark road, good people and good breaks were positioned by God in strategic spots on her path as she journeyed through life. But the amazing thing is how Jhet responded to the people who helped her and the opportunities that presented themselves to her. She turned every window of opportunity into a sliding door. People opened windows for her, but she opened doors for herself.

"God shows us opportunities," she writes in her book, "and we take it from there. When an amazing opportunity is presented to you, do what you need to do to make it a reality. Take immediate action. That is how I have gotten thus far in my life."

When I first met Jhet, who was introduced to me by Jeannie Goulbourn, I immediately noticed her toned, tanned arms. They looked almost sculpted. Do you work out, I asked Jhet. It was a sincere compliment on my part.

"No," she smiled. "I got these arms from lifting pails of water from the stream to our house, and from selling kilos and kilos of mangoes and bananas on the beach." She says it with pride.

In fact, Jhet wears her past like a badge. As Oprah once said on her show, being poor once makes being rich now, "Such a ball."

"There is nothing wrong with having plenty of money," says Jhet. "One thing I do know, for sure, from vast personal experience, is that it is better to be rich than to be poor. Why settle for less, if you can be and do so much more?"

Thus, Jhet is happy that there are people who bought several copies of her book to give away to their employees, maids and drivers. So far, copies from the first printing of her book have been virtually sold out, and a second printing is underway. Ten percent of book sales will go to charity, to scholarships for Jhet is one living example of how an education can jumpstart you on your road to success. She does not believe in dole-outs. "You have to work your butt off," she stresses.

Instead, what she wants to spread around are the secrets to her success, and she hopes to touch at least 1.5 million lives this year through her inspiring story.

It’s indeed a long way from Pader, Batangas to Rockwell. But Juliet Torcelino was not nicknamed "Jhet" for nothing.

(For speaking engagements, you may get in touch with Jhet at jhet@the taleofjuliet.com or visit her website at http://www.thetaleofjuliet.com. The Tale of Juliet is available at Rustan’s, Fully Booked, National Bookstore and Goodwill Bookstore.)

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You may e-mail me at [email protected]