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(As I copy this from her private memoirs, my friend Florecita was confined at the palliative care of Greenwich Hospital in NSW. While the average length of stay of most patients in palliative care is only 2 weeks, Cita has fought and desperately hoped for a miracle for almost 3 <\/span>months. She gained eternal life on January 22, 2014. We now know she has a special place in heaven.)<\/span><\/em> <\/span>\u2014 Dino Crescini<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Cita was a traveller. Her father would tell her to get settled warning her “that a rolling stone gathers no moss.”<\/span><\/p>\n After graduating from St. Scholastica’s College, Cita’s first job was at Quezon Institute, the same hospital where her father worked before the war. <\/span>In 1963, Cita\u2019s \u2018odyssey\u2019 began when she left for the U.S. as an exchange student.\u00a0 She took her one-year internship as a dietician at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. <\/span><\/p>\n In 1964,\u00a0she went to Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing where she completed her Master of\u00a0 Science in Institution Administration two years later.<\/span><\/p>\n While at MSU, she represented the Philippines as the\u00a0Secretary and Public Relations Officer of the Filipino Club; was an active member of the International Club and was the Philippine representative to the MSU United Nations.\u00a0She became the “star dancer” of the Filipino Club, most notably receiving first prize for “Singkil”<\/em> from the President of MSU during the International Festival before an audience of 5,000.<\/span><\/p>\n A fashion model and singer<\/span><\/p>\n She was also a model, wearing Filipino costumes during functions organized by private and civic organizations at the Filipino Club. <\/span><\/p>\n Her other activities included singing with St. John’s Catholic Church choir. <\/span><\/p>\n While exchange students in the U.S.A. were given 18 months practical training\u00a0before going back to their country of origin,\u00a0Cita chose to do her practical training in New York to join her brothers Deo and Rudy, who were working there.<\/span><\/p>\n She worked at Mount Sinai Hospital as a clinical dietician for one year and at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Centre for the next 6 months as an administrative dietician\u00a0to complete her 18 months practical\u00a0training. <\/span><\/p>\n A dancer and beauty title holder<\/span><\/p>\n In New York, Cita continued her active involvement with the Philippine community.\u00a0She was a member of the Filipino Dance Group of\u00a0 New York.\u00a0The highlight of her life in NYC was winning the title of\u00a0“Miss Philippine-American 1967” at a beauty and talent pageant during the Philippine Independence Day Ball that was organized by the Philippine Executive Council of New York and New Jersey. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>On board the HMS Queen Mary<\/span><\/p>\n In September 1967, Cita\u00a0sailed the Atlantic Ocean on board the HMS Queen Mary during the ship’s last grand voyage before commencing work at Hammersmith Hospital in London.\u00a0\u00a0While in London, she joined a travel club which enabled her to see most of\u00a0the United Kingdom.\u00a0She met the royal\u00a0 family during an afternoon party in the garden of the Buckingham Palace, courtesy of the Philippine Embassy.\u00a0She also attended\u00a0 the May Ball in Cambridge followed by a boat race, an invitation extended to her by an Englishman she met on Queen Mary.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>A hotel manager and university lecturer<\/span><\/p>\n Upon her return\u00a0to Manila, she became the Manager of the Manila Hilton Staff Restaurant and the Patisserie from 1968 to 1970.\u00a0\u00a0She was also a lecturer in Institution Management at the Philippine Women’s University. <\/span><\/p>\n She read, wrote and spoke Nippon-go<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>In 1969, she was invited by the Dept. of\u00a0 Commerce and Industry to apply for the position of a guide at the Philippine Pavilion during the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan.\u00a0 She was 1 of\u00a035 girls chosen from among 500 applicants.\u00a0The Expo girls, as they\u00a0 were known, went through 6 months intensive training in learning how to read, write and speak Japanese and all about the history of\u00a0Japan.\u00a0The training also\u00a0included\u00a0 trips to Philippine tourist spots and ushering at the newly-opened Philippine Community Centre. <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n While in Japan, she was one of the 3 Expo girls who modelled for Yomeishu, a Japanese tonic drink. Cita received the “Cultural Heritage Award” from the then First Lady, Mrs. Imelda Marcos, at a reception in Osaka. <\/span><\/p>\n Fired by the enthusiasm to serve her country, she joined the Aguinaldo Development Corporation (ADECOR), an agro-industrial\u00a0 Filipino-owned company as head of the Dept. of\u00a0 Food Technology. <\/span><\/p>\n To Adelaide and Sydney<\/span><\/p>\n Three years later, the adventure bug hit her again that she found herself on a plane, this\u00a0this time to Adelaide, South Australia where she worked as a clinical dietician at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1973 to 1975. <\/span><\/p>\n Following the death of her father, she returned to the Philippines with the intention of remaining there. <\/span><\/p>\n The opportunity to travel presented itself once again\u00a0and\u00a0she found\u00a0herself back to Australia in 1977, this time to Sydney where she joined the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH), a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney.\u00a0 It is at RNSH where she worked until she retired in 2004 after 27 years! <\/span><\/p>\n Community activities in Sydney<\/span><\/p>\n Flashback 1977 when Cita just arrived in Sydney.\u00a0\u00a0She immediately joined the American Society where she was involved in organizing cultural activities including Filipino Nights.\u00a0She also volunteered at St. Vincent de Paul Society as Assistant to the\u00a0Overseas Twinning Programme Coordinator. In 1985, she married Konrad Hoersch, an Information Technology Consultant, from Germany.\u00a0A daughter, Natalie Christine, was born but sadly, did not survive her premature birth.\u00a0Another trial was in February 2006, in the form of a rare breast cancer.\u00a0She had <\/span>chemotherapy, mastectomy and radiotherapy.\u00a0The care and support of Konrad and prayers from family and friends enabled her to cope and carry on.\u00a0She took life philosophically, derived from her strong faith in God, that He only gives trials that we can cope with.<\/span><\/p>\n Sydney has been Cita’s adopted home for 31 years.\u00a0Now both retired, they took time to indulge in their long-held passions \u2014 Konrad with his tennis, cycling, jogging and soccer, and Cita, a rekindled interest in music, acting and community activities.\u00a0Cita joined FAMS, a musical and drama society.\u00a0The couple worked as\u00a0 Professional Background Artists for\u00a0television and movie productions.\u00a0She was one of the founding members of the Ilocano Association of Australia (IAA) holding positions of Secretary, Public Relations Officer and later as the Vice-President. She has organized Filipino Nights in other ethnic clubs in Sydney. She later became a Director of the Philippine Community Council of NSW (PCC-NSW).<\/span><\/p>\n Before her confinement in hospital, Cita looked back with fondness of what she has become, given the opportunity of an excellent education, wonderful family and friends and a caring Almighty God who watched over her.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (As I copy this from her private memoirs, my friend Florecita was confined at the palliative care of Greenwich Hospital in NSW. While the average length of stay of most patients in palliative care is only 2 weeks, Cita has fought and desperately hoped for a miracle for almost 3 months. She gained eternal life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}