Pat and I decided to enroll Betty at the required age of 7 when we were in Crame. At ages 4 and 3, Tony and Betty had been going to a kindergarten school in Pandacan. That is why Tony could easily handle Grade I in Guipit at age 5.
When Betty was enrolled in Grade I in Crame, she became the favorite of her teacher, Mrs. Lourdes Flor, who was also the Principal there.
Betty became the assistant teacher to Mrs. Flor in teaching the lesser educated pupils to read and do arithmetic lessons. Like Pat in high school, Betty used to bring home and correct papers for Mrs. Flor.
At home she was very diligent in reading the book PEPE AND PILAR, such that Bing, who was watching her read, was able to MEMORIZE the book from cover to cover. Amazing!
A classmate of Betty, Perla Bersola, was another favorite pupil of Mrs. Flor. Perla was the daughter of Col. Pedro Bersola and our distant relative from Abra, Josefina Landinyan Bersola, who was formerly a school teacher. Betty and Perla became very close friends. They lived close together in Crame.
Col. Bersola bought Perla a piano. Betty also wanted to learn piano playing like Perla. We couldn’t afford to buy a piano and we couldn’t afford a piano instructor.
And so I just told Betty to learn how to type. I bought her a book on typewriting and for every page she typed, I paid her one centavo, which she saved in her “bank” at home.
She was diligent in all things she did, but she was also headstrong, such that she developed mother-daughter complex with Pat. Betty was always number one in all her grades until college days. She kept a BAG full of medals and ribbons from schools.
Leave a Reply