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sisters, Dionne and Cres. Dionne is
the oldest,and then Rudy, then Cres,
then Ramon, and I was the baby of
the family. I was three years old
when the Japanese burned our house
and all of our belongings were lost.
It was a harsh
beginning for a young child. When
the Americans finally returned to
liberate the Philippines in early
1945, Ana’s father and the other
children were all on the south side
of the river that separated Manila,
while her mother worked at the
hospital on the north side. As the
U.S. soldiers approached, her father
told fourteen year-old Cres and Ana,
to start running, and for the
brothers to go on ahead. “I will
find you” he assured them. It was
the last time Ana and her brothers
and sisters saw him alive. They
later learned that he was taken by
the Japanese soldiers to a Masonic
Temple and decapitated.
Running and
sleeping wherever they could, the
girls found shelter one night in a
“dug-out” measuring about 10 feet by
3 feet, which they shared with
thirty other people while the city
burned all around them. One night
they found a schoolhouse in which to
sleep. But the next morning they
woke with horror when they realized
that the other people, who were
there and sleeping when Ana and her
family arrived, were actually dead.
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“One night we slept in a
schoolhouse. The next
morning we realized with
horror that the others, who
we had thought were asleep,
were actually dead.” |
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Ana’s home had been located
in front of a university
campus, but then became
occupied by Japanese
soldiers and ultimately
burned to the ground. The
Japanese often went from
house to house searching for
able-bodied men and
weapons. Ana’s father had
only hunting guns, which he
used to catch quails to feed
his family. At one
particular dinner, he had
instructed the children,
“Whatever happens and
whoever gets liberated
first, you all must reach
your mother at the
hospital.” |
Continuing the
perilous journey, the young family
barely eluded machine gun fire,
running from street to street in
their quest to reach the American
military post, where they found
Ramon and her cousin Greg who had
been injured with multiple wounds
from machine-gun fire. Rudy believes
that he missed many bullets because
he was so thin. The family also
attributes his safety to the fact
that he was carrying religious
articles he had taken with him from
their home. Greg, who was nineteen
years old at the time, was
eventually brought by U.S. military
ambulance to the hospital where
Visitation worked. Though Greg’s
right hand was almost severed from
his arm, the doctor managed to
reattach it.
The family was
finally reunited after the American
liberation, but had nowhere to live,
no food to eat and very few clothes.
Friends offered them a one-bedroom
apartment, which they all shared for
4 years. Although Ana was the
youngest, she wanted to help her
family and began earning money by
shining the shoes of American
soldiers, running errands and doing
odd jobs for them. When day when the
soldiers told Ana they worked in a
mess hall, she asked,
“What is a
mess hall?”
They replied,
“It is where we ate our meals.”
“Could you feed
us too?” Ana asked bodly.
The next day, a
6X6 military truck transporter
arrived filled with enough food to
feed her whole family and a number
of the neighbors. The deliveries
continued for four months. Even at
such a young age, Ana was already
exhibiting remarkable tenacity and
resourcefulness.
Ana went on to
complete high school and then
attended college in the Philippines,
becoming a Certified Public
Accountant. “My mother’s
encouragement enabled us to recover,
move on and pursue our educations.”
At 19, she was
too young to practice, so she began
working as an Assistant Chief
Accountant for a company that sold
kitchen appliances. Bored and with
no opportunity for promotion, she
applied to and was accepted at
Harvard-Radcliffe College in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, which at
that time offered a one-year
certificate program in Business
Administration for women. Not
wanting to wait two years for a
Fulbright travel grant award, she
asked her mother’s permission to
sell part of the inherited property
to help pay for tuition and living
expenses in the U.S. After
completing her studies at Harvard/Radcliffe,
Ana proceeded to New York University
to obtain her MBA, while working as
a bookkeeper at a Brooklyn hospital.
Two years, she became the hospital’s
Assistant Comptroller.
In 1962, at the
request of her mom, Ana returned
home to the Philippines and applied
for a job with Mobil Oil Company,
who was seeking a male financial
analyst. Her credentials so
impressed the Comptroller that she
was called for an interview, hired
on the spot and put to work just
three days later. Her boss, Mr.
Robert Anderson continually praised
Ana’s drive and commitment
“I love having
Ana around because she’s always able
to do whatever I ask of her!”
After her
mother’s death in 1972, and wanting
to return to the United States, Ana
contacted Dionne to see why the
petitions for Ana and Cres to come
to the U.S. had not been answered.
Since Dionne had been forwarding the
information, the sisters realized
that Visitation had been
intercepting the papers and
destroying them. After submitting
the paperwork, both Ana and Cres
were called for interviews at the
U.S. Embassy in Manila and just a
few months later received their
immigration visas. After her
relocation to the U.S., Ana worked
for Mobile Oil at their corporate
office in New York until her
retirement in 1996.
Longing for a
warm place like the Philippines to
live, away from all the noise and
traffic of the big city, Ana moved
to Port Charlotte, Florida, with
Dionne, who was now blind and
paralyzed.
After spending
her life learning, succeeding and
working to help others, Ana was not
content to sit back and let her
golden years slip by.
“The trials and
tribulations I experienced as a
child gave me the strength and will
to achieve my commitment to helping
others. Now I’m retired, I have the
time and the wherewithal to
accomplish those goals.”
She found her
calling volunteering with the church
ministries at St. Maximilian Kolbe
Catholic Church in Port Charlotte.
In March of 1998, she attended a
LEAVEN Conference and met Mary Toth,
the President of the Homeless
Coalition. After inviting Ana to
attend the Homeless Coalition’s next
board meeting, Mary was so impressed
with Ana’s drive and desire to help
that she appointed her to the vacant
treasurer’s position.
In early 2000,
when Mary’s husband became ill, Ana
took over the role of as Executive
Director. Under Ana’s guidance and
direction, the Coalition is
thriving. She has secured almost
$500,000 in grants for the agency
and is now in the process of
expanding the office space where
clients can be counseled in private
and upward of a 100 people can be
fed. “I have been through war and
homelessness, having to start from
scratch with nothing. I have lived
in very close living quarters with
others. I know what it is to be
poor.”
The Homeless
Coalition currently sees about 125
people per month seeking financial
help, and last year, fed 8,300
through donations from area
restaurants and certified church
kitchens.
Under Ana’s
guidance, the Genesis Center is
committed to helping those who are
truly in need and who have nowhere
else to turn, regardless of their
race, religion, or background. She
is the one who developed the
100-plus Coalition of Health and
Support organizations who meet each
Thursday at the Center to ensure
that everyone who needs a hand up,
will receive it.
It takes a
special person, who has truly lived
a remarkable life to help bring it
all together. For Ana Madrid, who
grew up in the middle of a war,
surrounded by death, fear and loss,
her whole life has been a commitment
to pressing on, finding the way and
filling in the pieces.
“I begin each
day with the following prayer:
Dear Lord:
Today let my feet follow your
footsteps.
Let my mind and my eye think and see
the good in my fellow man.
Let my tongue speak only of love and
not hatred and my hand lend a
helping hand to those in need.
But most all, let my heart be like
yours so that I can learn to love
you and your people more and more.”
She has been
described by those who know her as a
precious gift who arrived at a most
critical time for the Homeless
Coalition, and one who is bright,
disciplined and possessing of an
uncanny tenacity for recruitment. To
me, she is a dear, dear friend whose
energy and concern for others seems
boundless. The Charlotte County
Homeless Coalition’s web site can be
visited at
www.cchomelesscoalition.org. 
|
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Story by Penny
Deutsch
25442 St. Helena Lane
Punta Gorda, FL 3398
941-286-6526 |
Please contact me at
c943x@comcast.net if you
have specific questions.
Penny Deutsch
Board Member, Charlotte County Homeless Coalition
Please click here for additional information
or if you would like to contact the
author of this article, Penny Deutsch. Thank you! |
