Mandaue widow calls her page 1 photo ‘my crowning glory’

YOU MADE MY DAY. Zosima Seno with a special copy of the CDN edition that had her photo on page 1. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

At 80 years old,  Zosima Seno of Mandaue City looks back with pride at a peak moment when she finished in the top 10 of  the dental board exam.

That was in 1959, and the feat got her name and accomplishment mentioned in local and national newspapers.

She kept all the clippings.

So it was a big thrill over 50 years later for the retired government dentist to see her photo in the front page of Cebu Daily News in   Dec. 11, 2014.

“I didn’t know… and can’t even remember your photographer clicking his camera,” she wrote   to the paper later  with a   Christmas card introducing herself as the “nameless” subject.

Seno’s  name wasn’t mentioned in the photo caption on the front page. The chance  photo was taken   of senior citizens lining up in June for the release of  P5,000  annual assistance from the Mandaue city government at the Mandaue sports complex.

With her white hair tucked under a jaunty cap, a smiling Seno  was shown leaning over a desk as a city worker extended the cash to her.

The headline story was about the Cebu City government being pressured to release the last tranche of aid for their own elderly and compared benefits of Cebu city and Mandaue seniors.

Why use that  photo by CDN photo editor Tonee Despojo?

“That night when we were closing the front page, we wanted a photo showing  seniors receiving their allowance with dignity,” recalled  publisher and acting editor in chief Eileen Mangubat.

“We didn’t know who she was but she conveyed that sense of pride.”

A neighbor told Seno about the front page exposure.   The widow saved a copy of the CDN issue.  Then she asked her helper to get 10 more copies to mail to her  four children who live abroad.

Yesterday  CDN visited Seno at home in barangay Guizo where she showed the  dainty flower-design photo album where  she kept the newspaper clipping   along with photos of her travels around the world.

Seno  was  the first City Dental Officer of the Mandaue City Health Department. Her late husband was also a dentist.

“I’m no stranger to happy events.  In 1959, I placed 7th in the Dental Baord Exams, with all the honors and tributes that go with that…. My album is full of those news articles and pictures preserved,” Seno wrote the paper earlier.

She marvelled again yesterday at how the shot was taken: “Wa man ko’y nabati nga flash (I didn’t  notice any camera flash)” – and that her wrinkles weren’t so noticeable as she smiled.

In high spirits, Seno chatted about  her life today. She stays active with a daily routine of  watching TV, reading newspapers  and the Reader’s Digest every morning then  walking  one kilometer away to the St. Joseph  Church in Mandaue City  in the afternoon since she belongs to a religious lay organization.

Her house companion, Imelda, said the widow is fond of talking with people.

The building in front of her house used to be the private clinic of her late  husband, and is now rented to a beauty salon.

Seno, in her letter to CDN, had asked for a copy of the page 1 photo.

“Thank you so much again and again for making my Christmas   a happiest segment of my senior citizen life through your prestigious newspaper,” she wrote earlier.

“My relatives and friends keep ringing my phone until now.”

“…I’m already 80 years old and that(front page) is my crowning glory completing my album of happy memories.”

Cebu Daily News yesterday fulfilled her wish, and in keeping with the 17th anniversary  added a blowup of the actual front page of the paper.

“Kanindot jud biya ani (This is so beautiful),” Seno  said with enthusiam. She said she would have it framed and placed in the living room.

“Destiny man tingali to, (It must have been destiny,” she said laughing,   noting that she used to read another daily and  didn’t want to add more materials to her diet.

“Pero karon, sa CDN na jud ko.”

As she bid goodbye to her visitors, Seno  said, “If you happen to be in Mandaue, never hesitate to visit me.”