Cauayan, Negros Occidental holds a special place in the heart of Penny Lopez-Katigbak. The family had a private resort there and, as a little girl, Penny spent a lot of time on the shorelines with her dad. When her dad passed away, the family moved to Manila and those vacations in Cauayan became a thing of the past. Penny tucked those precious memories of time with her dad at the beach away in her heart.
Years later, as a college student at DLSU, Penny made an unlikely friend. At an inter-school activity of AISEC (the student organization she was part of), she was captivated by a petite and spirited individual from the ‘rival’ school (Ateneo). This ball of energy (named Tata) danced enthusiastically as she belted out all the silly ice breaker songs. Penny knew instantly they would be great friends. As they got to know each other, Penny was delighted to discover that even though Tata had been born in the US and raised in Manila, her family also hailed from Negros. They later found out that their families were somehow distantly related and because of this, Tata felt that some cosmic thread had found a way to bring the two of them together.
Even when their daily lives diverged as they embarked on very different careers (Penny became a banker and Tata became a writer/editor), the two kept in touch and would remain close for decades. They often went on vacation along with the group of friends they made at that inter-school AISEC event.
When Penny’s mom passed away, Tata’s experience in the fashion magazine industry kicked in. Penny did not know what to do with all her mom’s designer clothes, accessories and bric-a-brac. Tata came up with a brilliant plan: They organized a sale of these items and donated the proceeds in loving memory of Penny’s mom. This little project planted a seed of inspiration in Penny’s mind and gave rise her passion project: The Little Vintage Shop which sells donated pre-loved fashion items to raise funds for projects of the Zonta Club.
When Tata passed away on February 10, 2022 at the age of 47, it left a huge hole in Penny’s heart. She wanted to fill it with love instead of grief. She found out that Tata’s chosen charity for donations in lieu of flowers was NVC so she contacted us in March to find out how she could sharelebrate her friend’s very colorful life. We suggested a pending project in need of funding, a livelihood project for the Panas-an Small Fisherfolks Association. By some happy coincidence, this community lives along the shorelines that Penny and her dad often walked along during their vacations. Somehow, that cosmic thread that brought Penny and Tata together in the 90s reconnected Penny to her happy place during her childhood in Negros.
In 2021, the Panas-an Small Fisherfolks Association received a fishing boat from then Vice-President Leni Robredo’s Angat Buhay Project. (Incidentally, Tata happened to be a staunch supporter of VP Leni.) This boat allowed the fishermen to go out to sea and catch a lot of fish. Unfortunately, just a few months later, Typhoon Odette destroyed the community’s artificial reefs in December 2021. After that, the population of fish in the area dwindled and so did the group’s earnings. The amount Penny had in mind for her gift of love in Tata’s memory was what we needed to rebuild an artificial reef for the community.
Soon after we finished the construction of the reef, the fish returned and the community was able to bring in over 100 kilos of tangigue, maya maya, grouper, snapper and barracuda. The fishermen earned well and began to set aside some money to build more artificial reefs. A sustainable future for the community was made possible by Penny’s gift of love in honor of her dear friend.
Tata loved beaches because she could bury her feet in the sand and feel connected to the Earth. She also loved showing off her colorful pedicures! The sound of the waves breaking on the shore would calm her sometimes anxious heart, and the steady rhythm would bring to mind one of her favorite literary quotes: “If your love were like a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches”. How fitting that the gift of love that Penny would give in Tata’s memory would keep giving until there would be enough love (and fish) to fill a universe of beaches.
