The date was January 27, 1939 when I was born in a place called Leyte in the Philippines. I turned out to be a girl to my parent’s disappointment as they were hoping for a boy to help my father in the factory. It was to their misfortune that I wasn’t a boy, so my parents decided to name me Maria Anacleeta Tagolino. Living with seven other siblings, I was the third eldest in the family. Life was tough for me and my family, but we were able to pull through. During those times, my father and my three brothers worked in the factory. My mother, my three sisters, my youngest brother, and I tended the rice paddies. We would work up to our knees in those muddy fields trying to pick out rice. It was exhausting work, but it helped bring food to the table as we sold it to other people. My family and I lived in a cabana hut made out of coconut leaves with dirt flooring. We only had two rooms, one being a kitchen and dining, while the other was a bedroom. My family and I bathed in the nearby river, and we used the restroom in an outhouse located behind the house.Having a family of ten seemed very crowded which it certainly was, but no one complained. Nothing in our household could be wasted, especially food. My family and I could not afford to waste even a single grain of rice, that’s how desperate my parents were in feeding the family. My childhood was difficult, but I was able to pull through.
Around the 1940’s, the Japanese had invaded several rural islands of the Philippines which included Leyte. Due of this, my family had to continuously move around the island to escape and hide from the Japanese rebels. Until the Americans came, they had freed us from those rebels. However, the Americans didn’t leave the Philippines after they defeated the Japanese. Instead, they stayed and occupied our lands, and they built military. The Americans had helped my country create records of residents living in the Philippines. When they recorded my name, they changed it from Maria Anacleeta Tagolino to Mary Ann Tagolino because my name was apparently too difficult to spell and understand. So from that point on, my name is forever changed to Mary Ann, and I was no longer Maria Anacleeta.
In 1957, it was a true turning point in my life as I was 18 years old. I was in my sophomore year in college in which I attended the University of Cebu. I was able to attend college with the help of my eldest brother. He paid for me to receive the education I needed. During my sophomore year, I met a brilliant, handsome, and wonderful young man named Julian Chen. Julian was a timid guy, who was also a year older than me. Julian had distanced himself away from me, but I knew he liked me as he would persistently glance in my direction when I wasn’t looking at him. When I did look at him, he would immediately move his face away from my direction. One day I decided to go talk to him during Chemistry, and he was very shocked that I came to talk to him. Apparently being one of the most beautiful women in my class, never in a million years did he ever think that I would come up to him. All the guys would try to ask me out, but I rejected them because I didn’t just want to date any guy. I wanted to date a guy who had the intellectual capacity that surpassed my own as well as a majority of my classmates, and that man was Julian. For sure Julian was brilliant; he had received a full scholarship to come to our college. Many of the guys who asked me out weren’t the brightest of the bunch as you would guess. When I spoke to Julian for the first time, I was so nervous and he was nervous as well, but we were able to pull through our levels of uneasiness, and we actually had a great conversation. Julian Having a good sense of humor, Julian was hilarious as he cracked many jokes, but not many of the guys understood them. Julian and I became very good friends from that point on. In my junior year of college, he finally had the confidence to ask me out on a date which I accepted, and we really hit it off then. After I graduated from college, he proposed to me, and we became married four months later at St. Joseph’s Church. At the time Julian insisted that I stay home, and I did. In the year 1964, I gave birth to my daughter Naida, and in 1972 I gave birth to my son Alphonso. From that point I became a stay at home mom while Julian worked as a Vice President of a logging company. Eventually, we moved to America after Naida married her pen pal Lenny Smith. Alphonso also later moved to America with his family for a job as a computer programmer. The reason Julian and I moved was to get away from the corruption in the Philippines, and live our lives justly. Beginning our lives in America was tough as I had gotten a job at the Home Depot, and Julian had worked as an A.C. mechanic. Having Julian and I work, we were able to pay off our house within six years. After paying off our home, Julian and I decided to live with Alphonso temporarily as we were preparing to move back home for our retirement. Once we were packed, we flew back to the Philippines in a little place called Sibulan where we lived out the rest of our days.