HER only wish for her 12th birthday on Wednesday is to have more chocolates.
Rizza Flores, the girl who had to endure pain for over two weeks after she was pinned down by a wooden beam when her home in Leyte collapsed at the height of supertyphoon Yolanda’s fury, was all smiles as she munched on a Cadbury chocolate bar gifted her by a couple who visited her in the hospital yesterday after reading in CDN how she was airlifted to Cebu from the storm-ravaged province. “Gusto nako ng dugang na chocolate pag birthday ko,” she told Cebu Daily News from her hospital bed. Rizza said her mother would mark her and her sibling’s special day by preparing boiled sweet potatoes (kamote) which they will share in their home in the remote village of Villa Patria in Burauen town.
If not kamote, they’d have taro or any other root crops which she said is abundant in their backyard. Rizza said they only get to eat pancit (noodles) on Christmas and sometimes during fiestas but not on their birthdays. “Tubig lang amo imnon walay softdrinks. Usahay maka inom pag may kwarta,” she added.
An hour or two after she arrived in Cebu, she had her first “Jollibee meal” of tapsilog, chocolate sundae and pineapple juice. Yesterday, she had chocolates, cupcakes and a cold chocolate drink courtesy of her visitors who wanted to remain anonymous.
“Karon pako katilaw ani,” she added. Also popping in to visit the brave girl who is set to undergo surgery for her fractured thigh bone tomorrow is Mitzee Martin who brought a cake, a Hello Kitty balloon, and a set of underwear. It was also Rizza’s first time to hold a balloon she could call her very own. While waiting to be wheeled out of the emergency room to undergo a CT scan on Saturday afternoon, Rizza also got her first toy – a doll with vanity accessories. The girl, who was in pain, only stared at the doll. Yesterday, she was combing the doll’s hair. /Michelle Joy L. Padayhag, Correspondent