No successor for Rosa Rosal

By order of succession, a President has his VP to take over in case he dies, resigns or gets impeached. A king has an heir-apparent if he goes or abdicates. Even a beauty queen will have to crown somebody else when her reign is over.

Only Rosa Rosal doesn’t have a successor as humanitarian.

Turning 76 today (“I’m almost 80,” she tells people who ask her about her age), Tita Rose should really just be taking it easy after working so hard all these decades.

Her showbiz work is not a problem because she had already been given long ago the luxury of accepting only projects she truly likes and assignments that would not require her to work beyond midnight.

It is her Red Cross commitment that is a big problem because, let’s admit it, is there anyone capable of replacing her?

Her involvement with Red Cross started when she was still very new in the movies. Looking around her, she saw her colleagues spending time in nightclubs after work to unwind. Although she didn’t see anything wrong with that, it wasn’t like her to be splurging hard-earned money on a night-out. Friends, in fact, called her “Judia” or Jewish because she was tight-fisted when it came to her earnings. (She had so many half-siblings to send to school back then.)

Wanting to make a difference in this world, she decided to get into charity work. But which one? Those were the post-war years and the country was trying to get up on its feet.

One day, she was at the Philippine General Hospital trying to see what she can do there when she saw lying almost lifeless at the charity ward a child who fell from a building.

The child needed blood, which Rosa Rosal immediately procured at the Red Cross. To her astonishment, the child woke up even before the bag of blood could be consumed. “This is where I’m focusing on,” she told herself. Rosa Rosal never left the Red Cross and had been with the organization for almost 60 years.

The problem is — who will take over Rosa Rosal at the Red Cross when she leaves? Some people may suggest the name of only daughter Toni Rose Gayda and she would have made a good choice. But Toni has a different kind of calling. She has helped a lot of people in her own little way and I’ve seen, witnessed and experienced that in my years of friendship with her.

Actually, Rosa Rosal is really a tough act to follow. Based on my personal observations, these are just some of the qualifications required for anyone who wishes to succeed Ms. Rosal:

Must be female but not just any female. Grandson William Thio would have made a perfect successor since he pinch-hits for Ms. Rosal in Damayan and is good at it. But the job is most suitable to somebody female because you need to be good at fund-raising and women are a lot more charming than men in this department.

In the case of Rosa Rosal, it helps that she’s a famous actress — and a respected one at that. The fact that she’s Rosa Rosal helps her get appointments with the busiest of executives willing to hand over donations to the Red Cross.

One time, she was at the old Manila Hilton and at the lobby, a well-dressed man she saw for the first time in her life approached her and told her: “I have P4,000 with me that I’m spending to treat friends to dinner. But you know what? I’ll just give it to you so you can use it for your Red Cross projects.” This was in the early ’80s when P4,000 was still a lot of money.

From all the donations that were coursed through her, Rosa Rosal was able to set up the finest and most modern equipment for her blood bank that would put to shame those installed in most hospitals today.

Must be honest and principled. “Kahit pambili ng Coke, I didn’t get a centavo from those donations!” Those words she can proudly say and say with conviction.

Whatever little luxuries she may be enjoying today came from hard work in the movies and, later, from TV. It was a good thing she earned well in her prime (she was Miss Philippine Movies) and managed to save for the future. And it also helps that she enjoys only simple pleasures and was never extravagant all her life.

Must be hardworking and disciplined. All these decades, she would be out of the house by 7 a.m. to do her job that doesn’t pay her anything. Who else is willing to do that? I guess only Rosa Rosal. But she has organized more bloodletting programs than the hair in your head and has saved countless lives in the process.

Maybe it would be nice to wake up every day and not ask: How much am I earning today? Instead, maybe you can ask: How many lives can I save today? Oh, that would be so wonderful! But easier said than done. The truth is, only Rosa Rosal does that. No wonder, it’s so hard to find her a replacement. She’s the only one of her kind in this world and we should appreciate her. To Tita Rose, Happy Birthday! And since we couldn’t find anyone to replace her, may she live forever!