100-year-old former WHO nurse reads PDI every day
WHAT’S UP, WORLD? One day in November, the Inquirer chanced upon centenarian Angelita Tiangco Garcia avidly reading the paper. She reads all sections but this former globe-trotter specially likes the paper’s curation of foreign news reports. —Ceres Doyo
MANILA, Philippines — And why does this 100-year-old lady read the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) every day? “It keeps me abreast with current events both here and abroad. All the writers are good. The Inquirer gives me a variety—lifestyle, property, business, global news, entertainment, sports and others. The news are noteworthy,” she said.
If Angelita Tiangco Garcia is doubly interested in global news reports, it is because she was a globe-trotter in her younger years as a public health nurse for the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO), having been deployed to different countries, in Africa and the Middle East particularly. She also had work-related trips to many other places. During vacation breaks she visited different countries and also the Philippines to be with her family.
Born on April 7, 1924, in Tondo, Manila, Titang or Tang-ti, as she is affectionately called, is the youngest of five children. Her father, Urbano Garcia, was a lawyer, a classmate of President Elpidio Quirino. Her mother, Serapiona Tiangco, took care of the growing family. The Garcias have roots in Naic, Cavite, but Titang’s growing-up years were spent on 224 Ipil St. in Espiritu Santo area near Avenida Rizal in Manila.
She finished her secondary education at St. Paul College in Manila (1942) but she had piano lessons at home with teachers from St. Scholastica’s College whose names she still remembers and whom she credits for their music skills. “Almost all homes on our street had pianos,” she said, recalling piano music wafting in the neighborhood.
Titang still plays the piano to this day, but reading, after prayers and breakfast, takes up much of her morning. Proof of her reading fare are the latest issue of the Inquirer and a pile of books, among them “Waltzing with a Dictator” by Raymond Bonner and espionage and fantasy novels, beside her sofa in her favorite nook.
Article continues after this advertisementTitang finished general nursing (how it was called then) at St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing (1948) and bachelor of science in nursing education at the Philippine Women’s University (1953), after which she worked with the Department of Health.
Article continues after this advertisement“I worked at the Bureau of Quarantine, which was in Port Area in Manila,” she said, describing the ease in taking public transportation then compared to now. She also taught in nursing schools in Manila.
OVERSEAS TEACHING STINT In Baghdad, Iraq, where she taught at the University of Baghdad under a World Health Organization program. —Contributed photo
On a fellowship grant, Titang went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in the United States, where she finished her master’s degree in public health in 1957. She also trained in public health nursing administration under the US Public Health Service that same year. She was a licensed nurse and midwife in the Philippines and a licensed nurse in the United States. All these prepared her for a career with the WHO that began in 1962.
But not to forget, Titang also served as a member of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and was a recognized guerrilla in the service of the Armed Forces of the United States (Oct. 12, 1943 to March 24, 1945).
First assignment: Sudan
Titang’s first WHO foreign assignment was in Sudan where her work focused on sanitation and nutrition in outlying areas. “That was in 1963. We were a team. Our team leader was a Russian who was a compassionate man. We worked with Sudan’s health department. Out of respect for the Muslim culture I always wore a bandana. I worked in Sudan for seven years,” she said.
Part of her job was helping local women with their reproductive health issues. “’Yung iba ayaw nang manganak (Some women did not want any more children), but Sudanese husbands wanted many sons who could become soldiers.”
She taught the women family planning. Some methods were against local beliefs, she said with a grimace, but if the couples agreed, “We did it anyway.”
She described the blinding sandstorms and the difficult lives of the locals. She also served in the department that focused on eye disease prevention.
After Sudan, Titang had a two-month all-expenses-paid break, then she was off to Baghdad. “We worked with Iraq’s department of health. We always had security detail with us.” She also taught at the University of Baghdad as a nurse educator.
After Iraq, it was off to Yemen where she taught maternity and newborn nursing, among several courses, at the Institute of Health Manpower Development. She was always in WHO-assisted government projects.
ONE OF MANY POSTINGS Garcia (center) with Catholic Church dignitaries in Syria. —Contributed photo
It did not escape this Filipino nurse that her local counterparts in partner governments had lower salaries compared to WHO personnel. Titang said she would sometimes share her dollar earnings with them. She had fond memories of her stints: “They were delighted when I used Arabic words. They did not mind that I was a Christian, a Catholic. I would go to church and play the organ. I was in touch with some Italian nuns working among the people. I would be mistaken as either a Japanese or a Chinese. When I said I was from the Philippines, some would ask where it was on the map. Some later visited the Philippines because of me.”
Despite the comforts of home she had as a child, Titang said she never had to deal with homesickness. “Our living quarters were always comfortable and our meals were cooked for us. While in Hong Kong, I bought a small organ and brought it with me wherever I was assigned. I would spend time playing on it.”
Titang said her non-Filipino WHO coworkers loved to go out during their free time but she often preferred to stay home. Hers was almost a missionary’s kind of life but she relished it.
What about love life? “I did not encourage!” was her quick reply.
Titang with the author
There were other places she was sent to—Syria, Beirut, Khartoum, etc. She never had an assignment in Asia.
Sunset years
After almost two decades with WHO, Titang retired and lived with an older sister in New York City where she did parish volunteer work among the poor. She rewarded herself with travels and later decided to return with her sister to the Philippines where they would both spend their sunset years.
On April 7, Titang celebrated her 100th birthday in a newly built events center at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City. Priscilla “Chilla” Lirag, her niece, organized the fete that had guests enjoying great food, drinks, music and dancing till almost midnight. The well-coiffed and brightly dressed Titang was in her best mood, posing for pictures with guests and relatives.
THREE-DIGIT BLESSING Turning a hundred on April 7, Garcia can look back at a life of service among the poor in foreign lands. —Ceres Doyo
Unmarried, Titang now lives in the Diliman home of her favorite niece Chilla, a retired UP Integrated School teacher and indefatigable church volunteer and Marian devotee. Chilla has, in her possession, Titang’s records, photographs and other memorabilia that could be great stuff for a memoir.
The centenarian has her own comfortable quarters and a caregiver in the Lirag compound. She can walk around but always with someone beside her. Titang’s WHO pension provides for her material needs. After she turned 100, she received P100,000 for centenarians from the Quezon City government and another P100,000 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
What is Angelita Tiangco Garcia’s health regimen that she has lived more than 100 years with nary a debilitating chronic ailment?
“All kinds of fruits and vegetables,” she replied with a laugh.
And happy surroundings, pleasant memories, family, prayer, faith in God and reading the Inquirer and other mind-stimulating stuff. She is ready, she said, when God calls.
