Unforgettable Person: My Lady Boss

"It takes time to know people."~ Mrs. Perla Yu Garcia

These words are still freshly ringing in my ears. They never get stale. They are now concretely built in my hard drive memory of my brain, the grey matter.

When I quit my studies in Mindanao State University where I studied Bachelor of Science in Community Development and Public Administration, I decided to work in a local Pharmacy against my parents wishes.

Things started to get nasty with the resurgence of rebels so I took initiative in moving to another city and applied a job there, also in a pharmacy. My background was checked and my former boss was contacted. To my satisfaction, my former employer gave her recommendation and I was accepted.

I quickly settled into my new job which was a stay-in, meaning, free board and lodging right in the residence of my new employer as part of the parcel. It was a taxing and underpaid job almost equivalent to taking traineeship without pay. However, there were compensations coming from other sources besides the salary our boss paid us. If there's emergency, we were allowed to draw cash in advance.

So while I was enjoying life in my new job in a new city, one of my former colleagues in the old employment insinuated an intrigue out of jealousy and my old boss wrote to my new boss in the city. My city boss talked to me privately about what my former boss had written. She listened as I explained my side and then she encouraged me to write to my former boss to clear myself as she didn't want to get entangled by whatever she meant by her word. It was so nice of my boss to treat me with respect.

My former boss replied very nicely too. And knowing me as a person and as an employee, she said a line that really struck me with awe about her person, "it takes time to know people". She also assured me that she had confidence in me as a person with Integrity. How very kind of her. I have never come across a person like her in my whole life.

Years later, I had no idea that our path would cross again. I said 'again' because since I left home to move to a much bigger city to study Pharmacy, I had never been back home to my province in a long long time. No one in my place had known what I was up to, including my past two employers.

In 1977 the Federation of Pharmaceutical Association of the Philippines held a Convention in Cebu City. One of its symposium venues was our college campus in Southwestern University. It was in conjunction to this event that I was asked by Mrs. Gloria Chan Abbu, the College Theta Chapter Adviser, to represent our College of Pharmacy to the Junior Pharmaceutical Association meetings; hence my presence was always needed in the campus. In actuality, I did not belong to any Student Government body but later, and why of all the people, the Theta Chapter Adviser had asked me.

So it was on this occasion while I was walking to the Library when I accidentally bumped into my first old boss. Her name is Mrs Perla Yu Garcia.

During Mrs. Garcia's lunch break, she took me to a nice restaurant and we had a lovely time catching up and filling news and stories about those lost times we didn't hear from each other. I was very pleased to see her and she was feeling proud of me when she learned that I was studying her field of profession. Naturally, she was surprised with my academic pursuit, at the same time was also very pleased.

Probably my Incidental Responsibility or task at school was meant to be or I won't see my former boss.

In December of that same year, my boss husband's Auntie whom we fondly called "Apong" meaning 'Grandma', underwent an Eye Surgery in the hospital owned by Protestant Church which was just across the road from my boarding house. I was notified of her confinement, and I went to visit the grand old lady.

Looking at the haggard countenances of my boss' husband, nephew and a niece, I offered my voluntary service to look after their patient so they could be reprieved from overfatigue. In my country, a close relative is allowed to keep vigil with the patient so if anything happens someone has to alert the medical staff immediately. There was no buzzer in those days.

I did it in gratitude to their kindness as the whole family had been so kind to me during my stay with them as part of my employment. Mrs. Garcia was a very lenient and understanding employer. I never heard her raise her voice to her workers.

Her husband was a doctor. He had his own clinic beside the Pharmacy of my boss, where I worked. I would say, I had a very good relationship with this beautiful boss who also had a kind heart and a beautiful soul. And so her family too.

She graduated Cum Laude in Bachelor of Arts in Silliman University and Magna Cum Laude in Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in San Carlos University.

Many years later, after settling down in Australia, I renewed my communication with her and we had few letter exchanges. That communication was extended to Imelda, her younger daughter and is Nang Perla's (as we fondly addressed her) perfect replica, who at that time was already a medical practitioner. To me, Mrs Garcia or Nang Perla is an unforgettable person and a much respected employer.

That quote above will always stay in my memory. I have been dealing with many people in my life, and after some lessons after lessons I learned from my experiences good or bad, bitter or sweet, I can fully understand what she meant by "It takes time to know people". And it did take time to sink her wise words in my head.

The world needs someone like you Mrs Garcia. You are an Ideal Person to me. I hope to see you all again. I wonder what the kids are looking like these days. They must be their own adults now for sure. Would like to visit you one day when I'll come home to our homeland. I feel so homesick.

With my deepest respect,