Elisa I know my grandmother enjoys cooking dinuguan and singing unfamiliar songs from the 50’s. I know that she wears red lipstick- always slightly smudged- and smells like rose water. I know the basics. However, I didn’t realize just how much I didn’t know. Imagining someone so old, wise, and experienced at your age is a bit unsettling. My lola has been an important figure to me my whole life, and it’s hard to register the fact that she’s lived so many different experiences even before me. These experiences that I’ve learned include her childhood, struggles, and stages of growth which shaped her into the strong, level-headed woman she is today. Elisa DiGiuilio, then Elisa Javelosa, was born into a wealthy family in 1941 in Jaro, Illoilo. Her childhood was very different to mine. Her father owned farms, where her favorite pastime
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They initially struggled due to inexperience and unqualification. Nonetheless, Elisa ended up working odd jobs. While going to college was never a goal for her, she suddenly became envious of people her age who were. “Be smart, be logical, and always think ahead. You are never too well-off to be lazy,” she told me. Working hard taught her how to be responsible, conscientious, and tough. Even today, she reflects her lessons onto her daughters and grandchildren by teaching us the same values.
Eventually, Elisa gained financial stability and built a family of her own. This included her husband and four daughters. They relocated to Jersey City, while she supported the family as a supervisor for a clothing company in New York. This lead to her greatest accomplishment; having all of her children graduate college. My mother and my aunts were the first in the family to do so. Since her children no longer needed her and she was growing older, my lola moved to Florida and remarried. She jokingly said, “it seems that most of my life journey just involved a lot of
They initially struggled due to inexperience and unqualification. Nonetheless, Elisa ended up working odd jobs. While going to college was never a goal for her, she suddenly became envious of people her age who were. “Be smart, be logical, and always think ahead. You are never too well-off to be lazy,” she told me. Working hard taught her how to be responsible, conscientious, and tough. Even today, she reflects her lessons onto her daughters and grandchildren by teaching us the same values.
Eventually, Elisa gained financial stability and built a family of her own. This included her husband and four daughters. They relocated to Jersey City, while she supported the family as a supervisor for a clothing company in New York. This lead to her greatest accomplishment; having all of her children graduate college. My mother and my aunts were the first in the family to do so. Since her children no longer needed her and she was growing older, my lola moved to Florida and remarried. She jokingly said, “it seems that most of my life journey just involved a lot of