Though she was in her eighties, still, her passing took many by surprise. She was not ill. She was still very sharp...memory intact, still fastidious, still elegant, still impeccably mannered. Her followers in the Inner Peace Foundation thought and hoped she would live forever, at least till a hundred. Her immediate family, children Derek, Joan, and Christine, grandchildren Maxine and Michelle, were shocked, because they had just spent Halloween and All Saints' Day together, and as usual, Regina had taken care of all the memorial preparations for her late husband Dee K. Chiong, as was her wont to do, year after year since his own death in 1981. It was just another day in Urdaneta Apartments, where she had lived for nearly two decades, having transferred from a bigger house.
Though she had lived a life in some form of limelight, because of the prominence of her late husband's position and standing in the Philippine banking industry and society, she remained an intensely private individual especially in the later part of her life since his death. She avoided many social affairs in favor of cozy and intimate get togethers in her home or in simple unobtrusive eateries with her fellow seekers and journeymen from the Foundation on the Path to Inner Peace.
Though she was born into a family of means and married into one as well, she was strikingly simple and casual, especially in the last thirty years. Frankly, I don't remember her wearing a dress or frock in all the time I have known her, except for the batik lounging gowns she favored when at home. She did wear a Ben Farrales gown to a fundraiser we attended together, but it was probably the only time in thirty years that I saw her in formal dress. She was usually in pant suits and tunics and slacks, and as she got older and preferred comfort to style, she would often wear tennis shoes and sneakers and a messenger bag with her outfit! It was unlikely footwear and accessories for someone with her breeding and utter femininity, but it somehow looked strangely cute on her!
Many people may not know that Regina was educated in the US, which is why she spoke perfect English...and thought in this language too. But she was Chinese by birth, and could speak Mandarin, Shanghainese, and Cantonese as well.
Many people knew Regina was wise, but few realized she was also extremely bright. She graduated from college, magna cum laude from an American university.
Many people knew Regina was spiritual, but few realized that she was originally a Protestant by faith. She mastered her Bible verses, hence her insistence on a Christ centered theology in the foundation. And even as she conducted the sessions in Inner Peace, she would still go to Sunday Service at Union Church.
Many people knew Regina loved music. Her favorite cd of all time was Manuel playing the music of the mountains. Yet few knew that Regina was also a dancer at a young age, encouraged by her mother to express herself through movement and art. It explains the extraordinary sense of rhythm she had, and her graceful dance like stance and mannerisms.
Many people knew Regina to be Chinese, but few realized that she was both Chinese and American in thought and behavior. She knew all the courtesies and niceties of Eastern social behavior, yet she was equally adept in Western high society, well versed in the utmost of etiquette. I swear, no one has ever seen her yawn, and no one has seen or heard her burp or worse! She had lived in the US and Canada, but renounced her foreign citizenship in favor of being proudly Filipino.
Many knew Regina loved books, but very few realized just how voracious a speed reader she was too. She took lessons under the Philippines' first speed reading champion, Teresa Calderon, just so she could keep up with all the literature she enjoyed reading.
Those are just some trivia about Regina that many people may find interesting. But there was incredible depth to her, and intense spirituality that she worked on day and night, and never let her guard down in her search for the eternal answers of life, love, and happiness.
For example, many knew and considered Regina to be a spiritual guru, a leader of a flock of ordinary people with extraordinary sentiments and concerns. Few realize that before she concentrated on IPF, she herself joined and took workshops in many various spiritual, psychological, and philosophical programs and movements such as Science of the Mind, Transcendental Meditation, Brahma Kumaris, to name a few. Joining the different programs helped her to understand the seeker experience totally and completely, and inspired her crystallize the basic tenets of the IPF way. She was extraordinarily humble to share where she learned new insights and perceptions, gave credit where credit was due. It was also why she encouraged others to try all the different programs available out there, because she herself was a seeker, a student of the spirit, and a product of so many influences and experimentation. This was also why she herself loved learning till the very end, taking up courses in Neuro Linguistic Programming to keep abreast of developments and trends that could help seekers like herself, and fine tune her own philosophy to be sensitive to the sensibilities and needs of her followers. Perhaps this was why she was also so understanding and welcoming of those of us who kept seeking answers in a variety of movements, and either came back to Inner Peace or moved on to other paths. Perhaps this was why she welcomed people who came from other movements, whether to stay or to just pass through. She always thought of Inner Peace as graduate school level soul work...the final frontier for all seekers...because the fundamental principles and tenets were so simple to master yet not easy to follow. Many people knew Regina came from a well heeled background. But very few people knew that as far as Regina was considered, her true wealth and prosperity came from the love and joy she felt by discovering, sharing and practicing with other fellow seekers the Christ consciousness that is the fulcrum of her foundation's belief system. That being said, the more prosperous and wealthy she became this way, the humbler and more compassionate she became. She always espoused that abundance and true wealth was a product of a positive and abundant mindset.... Despite her material comforts, she was challenged to raise two children single handedly while working full time on soul work. She did not have a job or a business, only investments that she painstakingly saved up for and managed with only her intuition and help from real live Angels along the way.
Above all else, Regina was human, made of flesh and blood and tears. She had her own reality bites, and problems that would have crippled a lesser person. She had her own personal issues, and yes, even a temper, that showed itself once in a blue moon...but show itself, it did. But with Regina, as with what she hoped her followers would learn and apply, was that mindful, conscious effort to be beyond human, to seek the divine path, the divine solution. To take the higher road, the path less taken, the better way.
Apartment 8c today remains the home of Inner Peace, now a watering hole for those who continue to search for answers and for an enlightened way of living and thinking and feeling. Her room is as it was on the day she drew her last breath, and her faithful Persian cat Angelo sits and waits for his mistress by the door. Elaine and Desiree, her two trusted assistants continue to source and prepare materials for those who come every Thursday evening in need and search of spiritual nourishment. Her children and all those she loved and those who loved her, feel a strange calm whenever they set foot through the doors, and know in their heart of hearts, that Regina, though gone, remains an unmistakable presence in the place where so many had come for advice and found solace, for prayers and discovered answers, for second up to last chances, for assistance and heard only encouragement... to connect with the God above...and hopefully find the God within.
As for me, I have lost my dearest friend, a woman who nearly forty years ago opened her arms and heart to all my imperfections, who chose to see the hope through all my despair, to nurture the promise inspite of all my problems, who christened me as Joy to turn away the Sorrows that my original name evoked...and to make me believe in and count on the Christ despite all the demons that I faced.
During her lifetime, she had taught many of us how to swim with the strong currents of life, and find our way back to the light at the end of the tunnel. Now that she is gone, I believe that she would be happy to know that we are still afloat, and that we have found and continue to hold onto the light that she lit inside our hearts. It should be part of our life's work, the purpose of our existence, to make sure the flame is not extinguished, for ourselves or for the others we meet along our journey.
For the lady who could see all our angels, has herself become a transcendent being of light, to continue to do in the next life what she started in the last existence...help guide us on our path to inner peace....the greatest abundance...the utmost joy.
Thank you Regina, dear friend.... Farewell for now, but I look forward to that time till we meet again.
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