Agnes Dizon Garciano, 62, mathematician, teacher, colleague and friend, passed away last Friday. I echo the first line on our Ateneo Mathematics Department notice: “Our hearts are broken.”
I first met Agnes in 1985, in our advanced calculus class under renowned professor Norman Quimpo. Agnes and her cohort were going for their master’s degree, while my batchmates and I were still in our third year of college. Fortunately at that time, undergraduate and graduate students could take classes together—not many people major in pure mathematics—and we learned from one another. This cross-pollination of learning levels would be difficult to implement now, where irregular credits and units need approvals even from outside entities.
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Agnes did well in the course, and before long, she joined the faculty. Years later, my classmates and I were also thrilled when Agnes got married to Gigi, the love of her life—she was so demure in her student days, I told her once, that we all thought she was going to be a nun. Though this made her laugh, it was not far from the truth. Agnes was prayerful—she attended retreats regularly and joined the meditation group run by our higher-education vice president.
At the turn of the millennium, Agnes became chair for two years. She still joined our problem-solving training team, and chose to handle primary-school children in summer breaks. At times she asked me to help refine talks she had to do, and one time as we discussed alternative ways to phrase what she wanted to say, I remember us collapsing with laughter.
A decade ago, our chats turned more serious. A mother by then, Agnes shared my concerns about the attitudes and mindset of young people. I had relinquished advising the undergraduate Ateneo Math Society (AMS) to work with the Filipino-Chinese campus organization, and for five years starting 2012, Agnes worked with the AMS.
Attentive to detail, she asked for suggestions on dealing with student slip-ups, and I was struck by her patience—and her toughness when needed. When I asked for faculty volunteers to help students manage their mental health, she readily joined us and mentored several vulnerable majors.
During the pandemic, Agnes became part of our School of Science and Engineering resilience research team, and conducted in-depth Zoom meetings with students to gather data on best practices. Her daughter Therese transcribed the interviews for us.
Agnes courageously battled illness. Our one consolation is that she is no longer suffering now. Last Christmas, we lost our colleague Jumela Sarmiento (“To You Who Mourn at Christmas,” Dec. 21, 2023), and the season before that, our mentor Mari-Jo Ruiz (“The Legacy of Mari-Jo Ruiz,” Jan. 5, 2023). How much more sorrow can the heart bear?
The moment I learned of Agnes’s demise was when I was chatting with a good friend, whose help in natural healing I was seeking on behalf of Agnes. This friend recently brought to Manila the Jesuit priest Fr. Gregory Boyle, who runs a gang-intervention program in California.
In his 2010 book “Tattoos on the Heart,” Fr. Boyle says, “After having buried 168 young human beings, all killed violently because of gangs, I have had to come to terms with the ‘failure’ of death. ‘Death, where is your sting?’”
“[Death has no power] are words I’ve spoken from the pulpit many times … Easy for me to say. There is much self-protection in saying it, however, otherwise you fear actually losing your mind…”
“Yes, the wheat dies, but check out the fruit. Sure, there is pain in childbirth, but here’s this kid…”
“An Algerian monk, threatened with death, says to those who will inflict it: ‘What do we have to fear after all? To be thrown into the tenderness of God?’ That’s certainly where I want to be, even if on most days the fear seems to triumph.”
Our tender Agnes, cradled in the tenderness of God.
To one and all, a blessed Yuletide.
Queena N. Lee-Chua is on the Board of Directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her print book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or e-book at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at blessbook.chua@gmail.com