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| Grace, Vic, and Val |
It's a nation made up of various cultures and nationalities, and you're either well-to-do or poverty-stricken. I was fortunate enough to be born in a family that was considered well-off.
My father Honesto was the first son of a landowner who apparently owned a whole island. From what I was told, my father actually had a water buffalo as a pet!
My mothers family was also well-off. My mother Rose had a father who was a politician, and part of the Philippine government that tried to get away from American rule in 1948. The only thing I can remember about my mother's father is that he used to carry a shoulder holster with a big gun - I don't know what kind it was - and he always had bodyguards with him. He was part of the Philippine government during the 1950s. That's also the reason why my mother never leaned how to drive, because she always had chauffeurs and bodyguards to take her to wherever she was going.
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| Vic's father, Honesto |
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| Vic's Mother, Rose. |
I was born on July 21, 1957 with cerebral palsy and only able to use one arm. In the Philippines, I had two other siblings born after me: my younger brother Val, born in 1960, and my sister Grace, born in 1962. My mother was trained as teacher, but decided to stay home to raise her family, with the help of maids to help look after the children.
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In the spring of 1965, my family moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada, spending our first month at the Abbotsford Hotel until my father got a job supervising longshoremen on Vancouver docks, like On the Waterfront (1954). Upon renting a house in Vancouver's west side, my brother Val was sent to Kindergarten while I was sent to GF Strong's special school.
My long association with Easter Seal (that later became Handy Dart) began on September 4, 1965, when manager Kitty Hudson carried me into a station wagon seat and folded my wheelchair in its trunk for the hour long "group runs" to and from school. Kitty set what I expected from drivers, her commitment and business sense became the standard that I still rate drivers on and I felt fortunate my first driver was the boss who later drove me the night I got my high school diploma. For three years, a pattern was set in that I attended "class" every morning, then had to deal with doctors, nurses, physiotherapists who trained me to live independently, but never achieve much in life, let alone get married or fall in love.
For three years, I had to learn how to dress, feed or do hygienic duties using only one hand, not to mention be put in a "standing table", wearing steel leg braces for two hours daily. I had to endure lengthy bus rides to and from "school", which never taught much except reading and writing — yet I just accepted it without saying anything. My dislike of doctors, of GF Strong, and of anyone trying to control me would all stem from this time.
In 1968,1 got a new 50 pound steel "one armed drive" Everett & Jennings wheelchair, along with a new Easter Seal driver named Jimmy Black. He was a former soldier from WWII who always urged me to speak and pursue my dreams. Mr. Black became a second father to me. Together with Tim Louis, I began encouraging other patients to make something of their lives, even if GF representatives didn't.
In 1969, GF Strong teamed with Emily Carr Elementary to integrate "smart cripples" with "normal kids" in a regular school setting. I was chosen as a "test case", considered to be in a Grade 6 level and was to enter Carr in September of 1970. That summer of 1970, Tim Louis and I went to Harrison Hot Springs, trying to urge Forest Minister Ron Baker not to close an Easter Seal camp called Chehallis, supposedly because it wasn't safe and was unsanitary. We achieved our goal and were considered quite a team but it was also the last time we'd be on the same side.
