Homer is the 7th child of Servillano Palugod and Macaria Agellon. The oldest was Generosa born in 1909, then Pacifico (1911), Dalisay (1913),Virgilio (1915), Homer (8/9/1917), Renata (1/6/1920) and Luz (1921). Homer was born in Cavite and went to school in Manila. While in college, he often commuted between Manila and Nueva Vizcaya where the rest of the family had since relocated. There he met my mother, Helen. "Queen Helen", Miss Bayombong, was the local beauty queen and eldest daughter of the current mayor Inocencio Zuzon and Juana Lafradez.
The romance included tales of meeting under the guava tree, my dad awaiting his turn to visit my mom amongst countless other suitors and Helen running away from home, rather than be forced to marry someone other than her one true love (my dad, of course). Both of them coming from local political families, the festivities lasted the whole day on June 1, 1940, with the whole town in attendance. According to Homer, he wondered if their guests would ever leave ---and he worried that there may not be awedding night.
Despite juggling the responsibilities of fatherhood, school and the worries of World War II, Homer earned his Mechanical Engineering Degree from the Mapua Institute of Technology in Manila. He was one of a handful who passed the Mechanical Engineering Board Exams that year. His early career included moving all over the Philippines, with my mom and an ever-growing family in tow. He started out as a salesman for GAMI (Gregorio Araneta Machineries, Inc) and moved up the corporate ladder as one of GAMI's most respected Vice Presidents. Three children were born in Nueva Vizcaya: Rolando (6/27/41), Mario (2/19/44) and Edgar (7/5/47). When they were about to give up having girls, Sonia was born in Baclaran, Rizal on 12/30/48. When the family moved to Bacolod City in the Vizayas, they were blessed with Myrna (7/19/52) and Efren (3/5/54). In 1955, Homer's job took him back to Luzon and I was born in Quezon City on 1/6/56. (As you can see, Tia Rening and I share the same birthday). Numbers 8 and 9 were born in Cebu City: Mary Joy (7/11/57) and Sandra (3/7/61).
In total, Homer and Helen have 25 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. They have been residents of Mandaue City, Cebu, Philippines for the last 25 years. They have now been married for 57 years. Homer turned 80 on August 9th this year and still plays a mean game of golf, enjoys writing his regular weekly column for the Mandaue Rotary Spanner publication and keeps busy tinkering with a powerful Pentium which lets him exchange email with his children and surf the Internet. My mom Helen still thinks all her 9 kids live at home and still cooks the biggest pots of the best adobo and kare-kare anyone can ever sink their teeth into. She enjoys wrestling with the one armed bandit once or twice a week, thus the prominent right arm muscle.
Three of us sisters live in California. Myrna and I are in Torrance (a suburb of L.A.) and Joy lives in San Diego.
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