UNTOLD STORIES ABOUT ROSA ROSAL

It was with great sadness and regret that I received the news of Rosa Rosal's passing last week—sadness, because of what everyone who knew her and her work would have seen as the end of an extraordinary life of artistry and service; and regret, because I had completed her biography fifteen years ago, and it came this close to publication before being shelved, for reasons I can no longer remember. I think Rosa said she needed to look into it a bit more, but never came around to doing so, until the months became years, and we eventually lost touch.

- penman BUTCH DALISAY

Rosa at her stylish best

(Literary SONG-MOVIE Maga)

The book had been commissioned by the Philippine Red Cross, the organization to which Rosa had devoted much of her life's work away from the cameras. Having established herself as one of the country's biggest movie stars—and not just a star, either, but a truly talented and accomplished actress - Rosa decided to put her celebrity to good use by aligning herself with the Red Cross, its blood donation drives, and other humanitarian efforts she pursued on her public-service programs.

It's a pity the book (Rosa herself chose the title: A Call to Serve) never came out because Rosa's life story was a stirring and remarkable one, centered on a woman vastly different from her onscreen persona and yet filled with such drama that it would be hard to believe as a movie. Her life seemed a constant pairing of triumph and tragedy, of maintaining courage and composure in the depths of pain and despair. Toward the end - she was already in her eighties then, and prepared to face her Maker-she left everything to God, being the person of faith that she was all her life.

I recovered the manuscript from my files, hoping that with Rosa's passing, the Red Cross and Rosa's family might decide to revisit the project and bring it to being - we owe it to Rosa and all she did. Herewith, some excerpts from the book that might yet be:

In retrospect, the opening sequence of Anak Dalita (LVN Pictures, 1956) captured what its star, Rosa Rosal, would be doing for the rest of her life: bringing comfort to the afflicted, as unlikely as her appearance and position may have been for an angel of mercy.