On the 6th of February, one of the hundred thousand babies delivered, one was at the Central Command Hospital in Camp Lapulapu, Lahug Cebu. She was named Valerie Mae, an English name that means strong and valiant. Vem is her nickname and unlike other nicknames, it went through a series of evolution as she grew up. There were Bemp, Bem, Teves, Vemp and Vem. She is the first born of Elena and Elvis Jequinto. Â
Unfortunately, her father wasn’t around during her mother’s labor and the first few months of the baby. He was in Manila on his way to Korea. Three days after the delivery, he went back to Cebu just to check on them and flew back to Manila afterwards and stayed in Korea for over 3 months for a seminar.
Being the first born and only child for two years, she was showered with all the love and care, needs and wants in life such as the food, toys, and the like. For short, she was spoiled especially by her father. She was breastfed in her first eight months and had a nanny who stayed through her early years because her parents had work then. Her mother resigned from work later on.
The music was always on whenever she sleeps. When her parents couldn’t make her sleep, they would drive her around the place where she would eventually fall sleep inside the car. Also, she loved to sleep on the stomach of her father.
She used to walk at the grandstand nearby with a kneepad. And like other kids, she love watching Cartoons. She loves music too especially nursery rhymes. She’d sing with a microphone where her guardians would find covered with drool.
As a child, she loved to eat pizza and she sometimes had it as a meal. Not only that, she loved chocolates too. Chocolates are never absent in the fridge. Her parents used to mix Hersheys syrup with her milk when she started using bottles.
Her mother gave birth to a baby boy after two years. Before that, unfortunately, she had a miscarriage. It was on her baby brother’s baptism that she had her earliest memory. She’s two years old at the time. She remembers holding the hand of an adult more likely her father, being so short that all she can see are the legs of the crowd. She remembers wearing her pink strawberry dress.
Another memory she can remember is entering a classroom as a nursery student, holding the hand of her father. She cannot tell if that was her first day in school. Unlike the first memory she had, she thinks she talked in this memory. Again, she cannot be so sure.
She didn’t enter a Daycare Center. She was four years old when she entered school in EMD Carmelite School Foundation as Nursery II. She stayed for two years. She was first honor with other awards. Her mother claimed that she would insist going to school even when the classes are suspended due to a hurricane. Valerie learned to read when she was 5 years old and during school tests, she would refuse her teacher to help her which should’ve been unfair because her teacher helps her other classmates. Once, there was a test when she had only one wrong. It was about a strawberry being sour or sweet where she answered it was sweet. She cried so hard and asked her mother to tell the teacher that her answer was right and it turns out she was actually partly right.
So far, Valerie thinks that was the first time she stood for something. This was the time of her life she thought were very promising.
