We were Boots and Atty. King at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio when Boots held a Read Along Session for 30 children, all kids of ambulant vendors in Burnham Park who were brought to PMA by Ms. Menchie Silvestre, head of TV5’s Hating Kapatid Foundation. The kids were treated to lunch, given a lot of presents in their loot bag, played games with plenty of prizes, watch ‘Mariang Makiling’ episode of ‘Lola Basyang’ then listened to Lola B. herself as Boots read the story, ‘Ang Plawtin ni Periking’.
The Read Along program of TV5 is part of their desire to cultivate the habit of reading among young people since reading is now a lost art as lots of kids prefer to just play video games. In fairness to the kids, they all listened attentively to Lola B and when they were subjected to an oral test later, they comprehended the story well and gave all the right answers.
Boots might now be 70 years old but she has managed to keep up with the times and is quite a techie, which is what Lola Basyang of today’s generation is as she does skye when telling her stories to her grandchildren who are based abroad. She and Atty. King celebrated the first anniversary of their wedding at the Archbishop’s Palace last June. So how’s everything after one year?“God is so good, we’re very happy. I can say it’s nearly perfect and we are both joyfully wed. Iba magmahal ang mga nasa autumn na ng buhay. Mas maalaga. Sabi nga namin, siguro, we must’ve done something really good when we were young kaya sobrang dami ng blessings na ibinibigay sa amin ni Lord ngayon.”
Her career is also doing great. Aside from “LolaBasyang.com” show on TV5 every Saturday at 7 PM, she’s also in the cast of “The First Daughter” with Ryzza Mae Dizon on GMA-7 and she’ll also be seen in ABS-CBN’s new soap, “Walang Iwanan”.