(Tribute to Aida Rivera Ford by Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz, UP Mindanao’s Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, on what would have been Ford’s 100th birthday on 22 January 2026. Cruz was in UP Diliman on that day so this piece was read for her by multimedia artist Noy Narciso during the memorial tribute held at the Ateneo de Davao University Chapel).
What an honor and a pleasure to have known Aida, first on the page, and then in
the flesh, through the Davao Writers Guild since 2007 when I moved to Davao from Baguio City.
I was starstruck then, that first time, to be meeting the woman who wrote “The Chieftest Mourner,” for which she is most known, and to be sharing a bottle of San Miguel beer with her. Kindred spirits, we hit it off quickly. I imagined she was the woman I would like to be when I grew up, the quintessential “La Que Sabe,” the one who knows, not “La Mujer Esa,” “that woman,” who cannot be named. The more time I spent with her, the more I became in awe of her as a woman and as a writer.
There was one very special afternoon I shared with her in the “River Ford” property in Uraya, when she told me about Bengt, her Swedish love. I wrote about this afternoon in an essay about women and writing, “Staying Alive,” which I hope will be reprinted in Dagmay soon.
I have been blessed to share the stage with her in literary events organized by the DWG, when she was still able to travel. What a privilege, really. But one of my favorite times with her was when we traveled to Cebu together for a PEN Conference in 2010 and shared a room. She had just had eye surgery to remove a cataract, and I was helping her with post-operative care. I felt grateful for the opportunity to accompany her while she was in that vulnerable state so that she could be the literary star that she was. Later, I found out that some people at the conference thought I was her yaya. The following month, I was elected president of the Davao Writers Guild. Not bad, for a caregiver.
Last year, at Aida’s 99th birthday, she couldn’t remember me anymore. It didn’t matter, I was just happy to be able to spend a few moments with her, and to hear her say, “Still feeling very much alive!” We all wished she would be able to celebrate her 100th, today. I am certain she is in our midst today. She wouldn’t have missed this one for the world.
Actually, even in 2023 after she survived her stroke, she couldn’t remember me. She could barely remember that she was a writer. She couldn’t believe it when I told her she had written five other books, in addition to the one she was showing us, Collected Works: Aida Rivera Ford, which I had personally negotiated with the De La Salle University Press through Isagani Cruz. I thought about what a tragedy it was to have devoted her life to writing and then to forget all about it.
But we will remember it on her behalf. Through her writing she will live on. We will keep teaching her stories in our Philippine literature classes. I am not the chieftest mourner in this gathering (I couldn’t even attend it physically because of official business in Manila), but I will admit I could not have read this piece in person without breaking down in tears.
Thank you very much, Aida Ford, for giving us 100 years of your light and beauty. You always loved to sing “I Believe in Angels” during our karaoke nights, and now you are one of them.
(Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz is Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao and President of the Davao Writers Guild from 2011 to 2016 and 2023 to 2025. As DWG President, Cruz represented Eastern and Southern Mindanao in the Executive Council of the National Committee on Literary Arts. Her latest book, Lugar Lang. Dispatch from Davao, published in 2024 by the Ateneo de Manila University Press, is a finalist in the 43rd National Book Awards for Best Book of Nonfiction Prose in English)
