A Tribute to Celeste Yutiamco Arpa By Gamela Arpa-Mullins           If there is one word that could best describe my mother, Celeste Yutiamco Arpa, that would be “indefatigable.”       Born 80 years ago on April 22, Mommy was the 4th of 6 children by Felix Yutiamco and Anastacia Montero- so, coconut plantation owners who lived in Cabadbaran, Agusan, an agricultural town in southern Philippines.            She was a sickly child, and as such spent a large part of her childhood with her grandparents, Chinese immigrants who lived in a quiet coastal town called Tubay.  Growing up steeped in Christian and Chinese traditions, she showed her indomitable spirit as she refused to let her frail health and strict Chinese up- bringing interfere with whatever ventures she set her heart upon.  If great-grandfather had had his way, her feet would have been “tied” in the Chinese custom of old.      World War II and the ruthless Japanese occupation would have ravaged a weak spirit and ripped every shred of a lesser character’s faith, hope and dreams for a better world, but not Mommy’s.  A devout Catholic, she not only had faith, she held this absolute truth in her heart that for every trial and tribulation, God would provide relief and reward.  To this day, whenever we faced a seemingly irrevocable situation or impossible goal, Mommy’s advice to us would be, “Don’t worry, God will provide.”   And He always did, not always in the way we would have preferred, but in unexpected ways in which we were all the better for.  So much so that as teenagers, my sisters and I used to kid around and say, “Better not make Mommy angry.  She’s got a direct line to heaven.”  Whenever we needed divine intervention, we would ask Mommy to pray a novena for us.  Her novenas seemed always to be answered as we observed her offer up novenas for sick and struggling friends and relatives whose plight would eventually take a miraculous turn.      Shortly after the end of the war in 1945, Mommy left a pampered life in her small hometown to pursue independence and a business degree in the big city.  It was at the University of Visayas in Cebu City that she first met my father, then Captain Carpenter Arpa, a dashing young officer of the Philippine Constabulary who was pursuing a law degree.  A World War II veteran who fought as a lieutenant with the Philippine-American Armed Forces of the Far East, Daddy, at age 28, had survived the Death March in Bataan, led guerrilla forces against the Japanese oppressors and declined the privileges that came with the option to join the U.S. military forces, for the honor of serving his own newly liberated country as a Filipino soldier and officer.  He was also a Muslim Filipino--native of the Sulu Archipelago, a place generally unfamiliar and hence feared by a lot of Filipino Christians at the time.  The two broke tradition and married, eventually settling in Zamboanga City, where their pioneering interfaith marriage was a testament to possible peaceful co-existence between Muslims and Christians in this religious strife-torn city.     One can only imagine the odds the young couple faced at the time.  But somehow, they overcame obstacles and crossed the barriers society placed before them and rose to become two of the respected names among both Christian and Muslim circles in Zamboanga society.  Raising nine feisty children and working as an insurance underwriter to augment Daddy’s modest soldier’s salary, Mommy’s indefatigable will had her doing various community and charity work as well.      Ours was a busy household, a lesson in tolerance and diversity by itself, with daily visits from people from all walks of life, notably the Muslim and Christian poor who were always given a meal and sometimes food and clothing to take home; job-seeking individuals whom she often placed as nannies and house helpers, or hired as bodyguards and security guards for the investigative and security agency she and Daddy founded after he retired from the military.      Then there were the religious and community leaders; missionaries representing different religions, tourists and visitors from different racial and interracial origins.   Daddy and Mommy often said,  “There is only one God and religions are simply different ways that individuals may choose to follow to bring them closer to the same one God.”  Hence, while having been christened in the Catholic faith, we were also exposed to the ideology of Islam, Buddhism, the Mormon, Protestant and other Christian denominations, through books, missionaries invited over for dinner and discussions, as well as visits to the different temples and churches that we were invited to.  At home, we celebrated both Muslim and Catholic traditions.   It is no mean feat that harmonious interracial and interfaith marriages and relationships abound within our family.     Of the lofty positions Mommy has held, she was President of the Military Ladies Circle, an organization dedicated to raising funds and providing aid and assistance, emotional as well as financial, to wives and families of soldiers.      She was President of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines Cagayan chapter, President of the Catholic Women’s League, President of the Women’s Club, President of the Family Planning Organization in Zamboanga, and a leader in countless other organi- zations that raised funds for community and charity projects such as the United Way and the Rotary Innerwheel Club.      For his part, Daddy was an active leader with the Knights of Rizal, the Rotary club, and the Philippine masons.  He retired as a colonel in the Philippine military but was later called to serve  as deputy director for a government investigation  agency and later as a negotiator between government and Muslim rebel forces in Mindanao. Even- tually, he served as intermediary between the autonomous Muslim government and the Philippine government and devoted himself to the goal of the Filipino Muslims and Christians’ peaceful co-existence, until his death after a bout with cancer.  Through it all, Mommy was the loving force that fueled his resolve.     Only Mommy could make sense out of being involved with organizations of conflicting interests.  Who else but Mommy could get away with being President of the Catholic Women’s League while spearheading the Family Planning program in a largely Catholic community. She would qualify that Natural family planning, which she encourages, is not against Catholic belief and she saw her involvement in both organizations as a unifying factor between their opposing views.   She was often teased, “You’re head of the family planning organization yet you have 9 children!?”   She would parlay with the reply: “I can afford 9 children.  Family planning is about planning to be able to provide for the size of your family.”     Even on lean times, there was always food on the table.  Mommy was the proverbial mom who could divide an ounce of fish and a piece of bread to feed nine children.  Two pesos could go a long way with her, and then some---always with the help of God, she would say.      As parents go, it is rare that you’ll hear a child say she didn’t have the best parents.  Rarer still that you’ll get a whole community to share a child’s view that she had the best parents.  So let me just say, Mommy and Daddy were recipients of the Parents of the Year award in the 70s. (Of all their awards and achievements, this was the one they were proudest of.)     This is not to say that Mommy did not subject us to a few classic embarrassing moments. My sisters and I went to Catholic girls’ school where at one point, dainty, colorful lunchboxes were the trend.  Hoping to own such a lunchbox, I reasoned and cajoled that it was more convenient for everyone if she let us have lunch at school, instead of having us be picked up and brought home for lunch, then driven back to school.  She finally agreed.  But while I anticipated her buying us those pretty lunchboxes the next day, she had a different plan altogether.  That day, she sent a maid to school equipped with the plates and silverware we used at home, complete with pots and pans filled with hot food.  To our mortification, the maid set a table in the school cafeteria just as they would at home and we had to sit there, eat and be served under the curious eyes of our classmates!  In her own well-meaning way, Mommy had found a way to grant me my wish without the extra expense of buying trendy lunchboxes for all of us.  Needless to say, never again did I portend to ask for such an “extravagant” item as a dainty lunchbox.     It took quite a while and a changing lifestyle here in the U.S. for Mommy to shake off her aversion to disposable plastic cups and paper plates.  They were wasteful to her. If you think growing up near the beach and having picnics every Sunday was a picnic, well, try having to pack a picnic for 11 people and their friends, using real plates and glasses.  I even recall that at one point, Mommy brought a table and chairs (and they weren’t foldable at the time!) to a beach that didn’t have a picnic area.    Then again, that was the indefatigable spirit in her.  She wasn’t going to let any inconvenience, big or small, get in the way of a family outing.  Or, in her way, period.    And so, a toast ---to a remarkable woman, wife, mother, grandmother----the indefatigable Celeste Arpa!  May you be blessed with the very things you ask of God for your own children---long life, good health and happiness! EDITOR'S NOTE:  Gamela is Mrs. Arpa's daughter. She was writing for the Philippine Free Press before coming to the United States.