Meeting Nympha (Trinidad)

   I had entered quite a few different bars; some were too loud to talk to the many bargirls that filled each one. I should mention that when you went into a bar you were likely to experience the signal of any girl that liked you rubbing your pants where you were most sensitive. I had to learn to protect myself from these casual actions that took place in the bars. Eventually I entered a country western bar and met the bar girl that would become my wife for the next forty years. She passed away in 2017 after suffering for years with terminal illness and the revisiting of the trauma that had been her early life. Together we had two children. I later adopted one of her two sons born before I met her. They were both left with family. The oldest with his (older) Filipino father, and the other an unknown service man’s son with her sister. Her grandmother had called her Nympha but her given name was Trinidad.  

   I sat down at a table with several bar girls and handed Nympha a Bible and told her she needed to know Jesus. She responded with her limited English, “You give it to me! For free!” “Don’t cost me nothing?” “Yes” I responded to her. She asked me “What is your name?” I responded, “Mike.” She says, “Where did you come from?” I responded, “I live in California.” Her next line was nearly predictable, “How old are you?” I realized her ability to speak English was very limited. I later learned that the questions she asked were rehearsed phrases that her grandmother had taught her (she dad attended school only to the 4th grade). Nevertheless, we continued to attempt conversation. My Filipino friend Joseph had been teaching me Tagalog phrases and words, which I had been studying everyday. Our communication was truly limited to basic statements.

     I had learned of an Assembly of God church down a small side street (Hansen St.) only a block away from the bar lined Magsaysay Dr. where I met Trinidad. The church held two-hour evening services seven days a week. The church was a great release from the life on the streets of Olongapo. There were only a few of us U.S. servicemen at the church services.

   I went back to the base that evening thinking about the girl I had met and wondering about my own feelings. The next evening, I went to the church and there she was! I went and sat next to her; she was cordial but disinterested in me. The preacher’s words were captivating her. His name was Rudy Guevara he was a Filipino national. When Rudy gave the altar call that night Nympha was the first one to respond and ran to the altar. She cried out over and over, “Buligan mo ako Panginong ko. Buligan mo ako Panginong ko.” Meaning, “Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord.” She finally got up from the altar after a half-hour of crying and praying.

   I asked her if she would like to go downtown for pizza with me. She accepted and so we went and ate pizza, drank pineapple juice and listened to a Filipino folk singer as he sang songs by Neil Young, Cat Stevens, and Bob Dylan. I enjoyed the pizza place a great deal. I would take Nympha there every night after church, as long as I had some money. Every evening at church Nympha would respond to the altar call and cry and weep with lots of tears and say, “Buligan mo ako Panginong ko.” “Buligan mo ako Panginong ko.” Because Nympha had been raised in Catholicism she knew of Jesus the son of Mary, but not of Jesus the son of God. She had a little area in her room for some statues of Mary. I told her she did not need them because she could talk directly to God. She broke her statue and said, “This statue it never helped me anyway.”

Another one of my favorite pastimes was to attend the movies at the local movie theatre to watch Chinese martial arts movies. I enjoyed marital arts and had become quite skilled with some nunchucks and Filipino fighting sticks. I also enjoyed watching Filipino movies starring the child actor Nino Muhlach. Nino Muhlach was for me like watching Spanky from the Our Gang series. On one occasion Nympha and I were seated in a balcony watching a movie when an earthquake shook the place. The people all panicked and were trying to get out. I just sat still, not knowing that in the Philippines the older concrete structures were prone to collapse in an earthquake!