RIZZINI GOMEZ WAKE/OCT.14,2015:Couple Former PBA and Coach Rhoel Gomez and wife Lalaine Lopez Gomez watch her daugther Rizzini Gomez the raining Miss Tourism Intenational inside her coffin who died of a cancer the other day and her at St. Peters Funeral homes in Mandaue City.(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
RIZZINI “Rizi” Gomez had many battles in her short 25-year life, but to her father Rhoel Gomez, this was the first one that she could not win.
“Rizi was a strong girl. She was the strongest of us all. She battled the lymphoma, and when she knew she could not beat it, she gracefully said goodbye,” her father said.
Rizi, who had won several beauty titles, the most notable one was Miss Tourism International 2012, suffered from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in her lungs for a year, and recovered after eight sessions of chemotherapy.
She returned to jogging with her father, even swimming and going out with her cousins. She even attended several events, the most recent one was her appearance during the Sinulog celebration this year.
She donned a black wig when she danced, and to her father, it was almost as if she was back to normal.
“She was almost glowing, and you could tell that she was very happy,” Rhoel added.
But despite the glowing appearance, Rizi was already having constant headaches, shortness of breath and neck pains.
According to her father, she only admitted that she felt “something was wrong” and that this time, “it was serious” last July.
Rizi was admitted to the Perpetual Succour Hospital, where it was discovered that her heart had already weakened as a side effect of her chemotherapy, and her lymphoma had metastisized to her spine.
Rizi was in bed rest in the hospital for the past few months, with a tube in her mouth, and her heart beating at 170 beats per minute.
“When I saw my daughter last Sunday, she was struggling very much. I could see that she was very much in pain, and that she was just waiting for her brother, Ken, to come home from the US,” Rhoel said.
Rizi’s mother Lalaine, and her youngest brother Ken, both live in the US where her mother works, while the middle brother Kim and her father live in the Philippines with her.
Rizi who was in tears at the sight of her brother Ken last Sunday.
“If there’s anything I’ll miss the most about Rizi, it’s how much she loved me, her Mama, and her little brothers. We were her world, and she was the best daughter and sister any family could ask for,” her father said.
Girl next door
The 25-year-old beauty queen, behind her well-kempt appearance, was just an ordinary girl—a family-oriented lady who was naturally intelligent and outspoken, God-fearing and very focused on her studies.
Her father described her room as a library, as Rizi was an avid reader, reading anything from romance books to science fiction books.
Her relatives and best friends, Louise Gomez, 22, and Jennifer Gomez, 24, said Rizi made sure you knew how important you were to her.
“Rizi would never forget anyone’s birthday. She was the one who would always make video of the times we hung out, and she never forgot to ask us about our day when we visited her,” said Louise, Rizi’s cousin.
Louise recalled how Rizi was her “partner-in-crime” when it comes to kikay things like make-up, and fashion.
Jennifer on the other hand, remembers Rizi as the most adventurous of them all, laughing at the memory of how Rizi drove a motorcycle with the poise of a ballerina.
“She appears to be girly being both a model and a beauty queen, but in reality, she is just a normal girl who is always out for adventure, and if there’s anyone else who deserves to live, it’s Rizi,” said Jennifer in Cebuano.
Unforgettable
Jonas Borces, the handler of Rizi in her pageants in the Philippines and outside of the country, said that despite being an ordinary girl, she was an unforgettable model and beauty queen.
“She made history when she won Ms. Tourism International in 2012, and she made every Cebuano proud as she showed how it is to be both beautiful and intelligent,” Borces said.
Borces added that Rizi was the kind of girl who would listen, but when she noticed something was not right, she would speak out about it. She is a very unique girl, and a kind of beauty queen that Cebuanos should be proud to have had.
“When she took the stage last Sinulog, you would never know the battles she fought against her disease because she looked like she was so happy with what she was doing.”
“Until the very end, Rizi kept fighting. She wanted to live, I knew it when I last saw her, she wanted to be with everyone and to continue making Cebuanos proud.” Borces said.