It is time for Charlyn Montebon Villa to repay debts of gratitude.
Charlyn placed second in the Nurse Licensure Examination and she knew she wouldn’t get there if her parents and aunt had not struggled to support her nursing education.
Charlyn, 21, and a resident of Barangay Concepcion in Talisay City, passed the exams with a grade of 86.20 percent.
She was among at least 9,707 of 17,891 examinees who passed the exams.
Charlyn, who graduated cum laude at Riverside College in Bacolod City, recalled that she, her mother Helen, 53, and her aunt, Nancy Salbibia, went around Bacolod City just to keep their minds off thinking too much about the exam results which they had been waiting for.
“My anxiety about the results was severe (at that time),” Charlyn said.
“We were just roaming around,” she added.
The three were walking on Lacson Street around 7:30 p.m. on the day the results came out when Nancy received a call on her mobile phone that Charlyn ranked second in the board exams.
The good news stunned them. They stopped walking, started to cry and hugged.
“I prayed I would pass the exam. I did not expect I would make it to second place,” said Charlyn.
Charlyn is the second of four children of Nonito Villa, 54, a jeepney driver and Helen, a homemaker.
Her elder brother, Glenn, 33, suffers from epilepsy and is bedridden. Her two other brothers are Aljohn, 19, who is taking up Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation; and Alton, 9, a Grade 4 student.
She recalled parts of her childhood being spent on watching nurses assisting her brother when he suffered epilepsy attacks.
This made her dream of becoming a nurse.
The success of a cousin, Charry Salbibia, a nurse working in Canada, also inspired her.
The biggest problem, though, was how to finance a nursing education through the earnings of a jeepney driver that could barely support a family of six.
“Money was not easy when we were growing up but my father worked hard to provide for our needs,” Charlyn said.
Another aunt, Digna Blackett, who worked as a hospital aide in the United Kingdom, helped her with her tuition from high school to college.
Charlyn said she and her family lived in the house of Blackett in Barangay Concepcion as caretakers.
Blackett was apparently impressed by Charlyn’s determination to study.
Charlyn graduated with honors at Concepcion Elementary School in Talisay City.
Her first two years in high school were spent at University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos in Talisay before she transferred to Colegio San Agustin in Bacolod where she graduated also with honors.
Charlyn said once she starts earning money as a nurse, she will tell her father to retire from driving.
She also plans to repay Blackett by helping her and her husband in their senior years.
Riverside College has offered Charlyn a five-month clinical enhancement program training and a full-time job at Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital, which is part of the school. It’s a reward given to graduates of the school who make it to the Top 10 of the board exams.