Celebrating Mom Edith

It took me quite a while to believe that she was really gone.After all, it seemed as if it were only yesterday when we had first met and I had decided that yes, I would want to write forever.Inspiration or no inspiration.

 I guess that’s how incredible the impact that Mom Edith had on me.and I guess I will always have her to thank for that.After all,although I truly loved literature and everything that has to do with weaving stories, looking back, I was never really the type of person who had what they said was a natural flair for writing.

 When I was around thirteen, I could hardly write a decent paragraph, much more a full fledged story with a plot and really memorable characters.Trust was a struggle, believe me.It was frustrating to say the least because here you were, bursting with so many ideas that you just couldn’t seem to put down on paper.

 It only took one woman, who was coincidentally the Mother of Philippine Literature to believe in me, to make things turn around a hundred and eighty degrees.Of course, it took a lot of hard work too like reading a gazillion good books from popular and not-so-popular authors, and writing everyday for four to five hours to really get the hang of things, but my point is that if I hadn’t met Mom Edith at that exact turning point in my life as an artist, I would never have drastically improved my writing.Never.

 I was too discouraged and disillusioned coming from my school paper experience when I was told that I didn’t and would never know know to write.Come freshman year in hooligan when I was really itching to write my own stories, a close friend of mine who was also a very talented writer consigned my tales to the trash bin, saying that these were boring and lacked imagination.I almost believed her until i was introduced to Mom Edith who read my books and who told me to keep at it.And I did.

 Mom Edith in Philippine Literature was what Sigmund Freud was to the psychoanalytic community so you can imagine what a gangly fourteen year old girl felt like when someone like Edith Tiempo graced the launching of her first book.And you can imagine the feeling when someone like Edith Tiempo invites you to the National Writers Workshop.It was at that point, really, when I knew that I wanted to be writer.I was at that point when I realized that hey, great writers are not born.Great writers are products of great mentors and a genuine love for the arts.

 I was never able to see Mom Edith again after leaving the throes of high school and it grieves me so much that I was never able to bid her farewell or talk to her for the last time.Or at least thank her for being the tipping point in my career as a young writer.

 Mom Edith to me will always be the greatest name in Philippine Literature not because of the stories that she has written but because if the many great writers that she has inspired.Many of today’s greatest names in Philippine Literature have been her greatest accomplishments.

 So I consider it a blessing to say the least that at some point in my life, the stars conspired to make our paths cross.At 22, I am still writing.Stories, plays, musicals, poems, feature articles, anything.I think I will still be writing even when I’ll be 100, even if the last drop of inspiration will have fled from me.

I will continue to write not for myself but for the woman who has inspired me to keep on writing.I will continue to write because writing is a celebration of life.And for Mom Edith, writing is a celebration if a life well lived.