STURDY AND STRONG AS AN OAK

by: Norberto G. Betita

Dr. Celia F. Silverio-Santos, M.D.

She’s got the looks, the brilliance of the mind, the blessings of prominence, and the lush of a luxuriant life. Her mother is our high school Guidance Counselor and her father a Department of Education District Supervisor. That’s great big deal during those times. Her family’s prominence even adds to her campus popularity. Yet she’s simply known as an unassertive self-effacing beautiful young woman carrying her books and notebooks with hands over her bosom as ordinary female students do.

SNNHS ‘69er CELIA F. SILVERIO is a beauty that is worthy of every young man’s admiration and respect. Her youthful radiance and prettiness, and sharp mind provide a constant fitting choice of a muse, which for many of us is just an ordinary title given to a beauty which we elected as part of our class organization. A muse, however, is not much about beauty; it is meant “any of the nine sister goddesses of the Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry, and the arts and sciences; a source of inspiration; a guiding genius.” Such description perhaps had given her an exceptional love for the academe. She’s one of those who received the highest graduation honors and recognitions. Her high school academic achievements were carried on in advancing cadence through college.

Heaving and lugging her love of academics in her journey’s haversack to the most challenging field of higher education, she had herself enrolled in a University in Manila to take up a four-year course in Medical Technology. Upon graduation she took and passed the Licensure Examinations for Medical Technologists. That should have been adequately enough for her to start a career. However, the achievement seemed not to satiate her continuing love for studies therefore leaving rooms in her brain to contain the learnings for another academic field. Hence, she took a nursing course and eventually became a Registered Nurse. With two professional licenses on her academic bag she should have gone abroad and become part of the Filipino diaspora. But she seemed to feel that her gift of intelligence is still leaving empty spaces for more brainwaves to lodge. Consequently, she was driven into the superior vista of the medical field and took the most demanding Medical Course later to become a duly licensed Physician, eventually specializing in OB-gynecology

Among the best of the SNNHS 69ers, she probably has the highest number of academic accomplishments and professional authority. Becoming a licensed Medical Technologist, a Registered Nurse, and a Licensed Physician specializing in OB-gynecology is no joke. Indeed, she never allowed every single chance to fade away. Even perhaps with sufficient provisions, her journey towards such exemplary achievements had been physically tough and mentally demanding. Yet, she stood like an oak, sturdy and strong soaring high above, building strong root foundations beneath, holding on against every wind of trials and adversities along the way. With three professional authorities on hand, she moved her way forward and upward into the limelight of career women. She was married to another Physician who gave her the name of Celia F. Silverio Santos which marital union was blessed with two children.

From the morning of her life, where she once gleam in beauty and dignity amongst the group of SNNHS 69ers; that self-effacing and unassertive student carrying her notebooks and books on hand over her bosom, now blooms and prospers towards life’s twilight filled with pride and increased temporal bounties reserved for days of grey. On vacations to Canada, Texas and other parts of the world, she filled herself with memories, that perhaps she “…may have June roses in the December of [her life] (James Barrie.)” She is presently connected in a nonstock-nonprofit foundation hospital where her professional capabilities are most needed.