Gloria Garchitorena Goloy, poet, short story writer and journalist, passed away on Dec. 28 at the age of 93.
A journalism graduate of the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, she was associate editor of the premartial law Sunday Times Magazine and supplements editor of The Manila Times. She later contributed articles to the magazines Express Sports Weekly, Sunburst, People (Times Journal) and Mr. & Ms., as well as to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
She also edited the Paco Parish Sentinel, the newsletter of the Parish of San Fernando de Dilao of Paco, Manila, during the stewardship of Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr.
Goloy authored four books, “Adams and Eves and Other Poems” (1969), “A Housewife in the World of Sports” (1997), “At the Crossroads” (2007), and “Two Voices” (2013).
Her poems are included in such anthologies as “Philippine Contemporary Literature” (Maramba, 1978), “Philippine Literature” (De La Salle University Press, 1990-1995), “A Native Clearing” (Abad, 1993), and “Songs of Ourselves” (Manlapaz, 1994).
She received, among others, the Golden Owl award for excellence in poetry (UST Philets Foundation), certificate of recognition in journalism (UST Alumni Association), Gawad Kalinangan award (Rotary Club of Manila), lifetime achievement award (Philippine Sportswriters Association), and Noblesse Oblige award (Paco Catholic School).
She cofounded the Greater Manila Duckpin Bowling Association Inc., subsequently the National Duckpin Bowling Association Inc.
2 Glorias
Goloy is remembered for chronicling the triumph of Gloria Diaz in 1969 as the Philippines’ first Miss Universe. She was Diaz’s official journalist-chaperone.
In 2012, Goloy fractured her right hip and underwent partial hip replacement surgery. She became wheelchair-bound despite continuing physical therapy.
She described her life then in a message to the Philippine PEN at the launch of “Two Voices” in 2013:
“I am like a soldier confined to barracks. Besides medical checkups, I can count with the fingers of one hand my outings in the last year … Whenever I need to go somewhere, my daughters hire a van, with a pahinante, so I can be loaded on to the vehicle and then unloaded—in my wheelchair. On Sundays, a lay minister comes to the house to give me Holy Communion and to share readings from the Mass.
“This wheelchair, which I may have to put up with for the rest of my life, is constricting my lifestyle. However, it isn’t constricting my mental activities! I’m still playing with words—in solving puzzles, this time, and it is giving me a different kind of triumphant joy!”
Goloy is survived by her daughters Angelina, Matilde and Elizabeth; son-in-law Ric Cortez Jr.; grandchildren Giselle, Erica and Alfred Araullo, Fredric and Eunice, Carlo, Paolo, Luis and Nico; and six great-grandchildren.