TWELVE-year-old typhoon survivor Rizza Flores got her wish to have more chocolates for her birthday yesterday.
Aside from chocolates which she tasted for the first time after she was airlifted to Cebu from Tacloban City last Saturday, Flores was gifted with toys, books, clothes, cakes, cookies, food, school supplies, foot wear, cash and a rosary that came from the Vatican by a stream of visitors who read how she endured pain for over two weeks.
Rizza fractured her thigh bone after she was pinned down by a wooden beam when her home in Burauen, Leyte collapsed at the height of supertyphoon Yolanda’s fury in Nov. 8. It took barangay tanods at least six hours to pull Rizza out of the rubble and was taken to a hospital over two weeks after as roads were rendered impassable.
International aid workers who saw her at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center worked with the Dona Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Foundation to have Rizza evacuated from Ground Zero last Saturday.
Rizza underwent a five-hour surgery at Chong Hua Hospital where a team of doctors led by Dr. Leopoldo Jiao III attended to her.
A full day after her surgery, Rizza had a stream of visitors to greet her on her 12th birthday yesterday. She said it was her first time to celebrate her birthday away from her mother and siblings and it was also her first time to receive presents.
Rizza’s first visitor was Therese Gonzales, who owns a Potato Corner franchise in Cebu with her daughter Simone. They gave Rizza two paper bags filled with clothes, school bags, coloring books and materials, food, towels, socks, clothing, a book entitled “Akong Bugsay” written by Amaya C. Aboitiz, a prayer book and a rosary from Rome.
“We will pray for you Rizza, your guardian angel will look and protect you always. Be strong, get well and you will be fine,” the elder Gonzales said.
She also showed Flores a picture of San Pedro Calungsod that she bought from Rome. They also read birthday greetings from a card that was translated to her native dialect Waray.
Minutes later, the family of Athena Ygona of Mandaue City came in and brought her a cake, a bag of chocolates, and cash.
Ygona said she was touched on reading Flores’ plight in last Monday’s Cebu Daily News issue. “This is a small act of kindness to Rizza,” she told CDN. Ygona also gave words of encouragement to the 11-year-old kid who winced and cried on feeling pain on her right leg.
Ygona said she was vacationing in Cebu and is scheduled to return to New York at the end of this month where she works as a Special Education teacher.
A Chinese woman who requested anonymity also dropped by and gave Flores clothes. She visited Flores a day earlier and gave her chocolates and food. A Talisay City resident who also requested anonymity gave her P3,000.
Fr. Loreto Jaque of San Carlos seminary, who’s trained in psychotherapy using art, play and prayer also visited Flores.
Four staffers from the hospital’s dietary department sang a birthday song and gave her a cake.
Cebu Daily News staffers likewise gave her a birthday cake, toys, slippers, and clothes yesterday. Flores stared at the gifts given to her and said she never saw so much toys, clothes and food in her life before.
As she opened her gifts, Flores told Cebu Daily News that she was happy with the toys and presents that she received.
She said she only played with sticks, leaves and stones with other children in their mountain barangay in Leyte.
Much as she was happy when she opened her gifts, Flores said she was just eager to return to school with her new bag and school materials.