The Heartwarming Legacy of Helen Bernados

It has been ten years since I last saw Helen, who is a first-degree cousin. Even then, I knew she is one very remarkable lady.

She is now 83 years of age, although one would reckon her to be 20 or 30 years younger. The adversities and challenges she faced during those years has amazingly evolved in her a keen mind, pleasant disposition, spiritual vitality, and physical stamina.

The early death of her father forced her to support herself through high school, studying what she needed to know to become proficient in her progressively more responsible jobs. Thus, she learned how to type, do bookkeeping and balance accounts, even how to recognize the correct automotive part for the right type of car.

Such thoroughness ultimately paid off when she found a permanent job with a stable, steady income, actually doing office accounting work. So she was able to sustain herself through college: first she took up Commerce, then her primary choice Education, even enrolled in Economics. Marriage and the birth of four children: Wilmar, Mark, Gelic, and Jonathan, did not deter this insatiable quest for knowledge.

Then tragedy struck, hard and devastating: her husband left her, and fire razed their house in Cebu City. With the help of friends and concerned acquaintances,

she relocated to Linao, Talisay. To fend for herself and her kids, the youngest being a special child, she accepted retainer-basis part-time accountancy work. To augment her salary, she started a shell handicraft business at home.

She never wavered in her dream that her offsprings finish college and themselves turn professionals. Wilmar became a Lawyer with managerial post at the Bureau of Customs, Mark was a Certified Public Accountant with executive function at the National Bureau of Investigation, and Gelic, also a CPA, held a sensitive position at the International Pharmaceutical Industries, one of the country's largest consumer products manufacturer.

Another commitment she kept all these years was one she made to herself at the start of her adult life: to annually hold a party and gift-sharing for the children in her neighborhood, especially those coming from poor families. It has become a long tradition, so much so that those that have transferred elsewhere, and those that grew up and had children of their own, would make the trip back just to participate in this simple though raucous yet reverent occasions.

I was in one of those events, 10 years ago.

Her legacy extends to the new barangay hall and the new elementary school building, both of which she was instrumental in bringing to construction as Number 1 Councilor, the only first timer and lone opposition voted into office by the community.

Looking back on every trial, tribulation, and triumph, she offers these gemstones of advice to the succeeding generations: PERSEVERE and PRAY !

The well-appointed, superbly decorated, lavishly-furnished, two-storey concrete house she created herself attests to her success in life. The adulation of everyone around her: young and old, neighbors and associates, friends and relatives, is proof-positive of the blessings poured on her for the good work she had done.

A very inspiring life indeed.