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Postscript A Good Night’s Sleep

attended as a young girl. By the time she retired as guidance counselor in 2011, Vicky
had become such an institution herself that the school established the Vicky SyCip
Herrera Scholarship in her name, for the benefit of deserving Filipino students.

In the context of her professional achievements, and in a departure from the common
lot of children of famous parents fated to be referred to constantly as “the daughter
of Wash SyCip,” Wash sometimes complained to Vicky that he was being introduced
as “the father of Vicky.”

“Dad wasn’t big on compliments,” says Vicky, laughing, “but that was a compliment.”

Married to the lawyer Florentino “Binky” Herrera III, and with their children busy
with their own lives and families, Vicky found more time after retirement to attend
to Wash and her mother Anna. She shuttled between her parents in Forbes Park,
their home in Wack Wack, and their weekend hideaway in Tagaytay. Wash loved that
sprawling place along the volcanic crater’s ridge overlooking the lake, going there on
Saturday evening for a movie night and leaving after Sunday lunch. From her vantage
point, Vicky had insights into aspects of her parents’ life that few people saw.

“My mom Anna was afflicted with Alzheimer’s for the longest time, about twenty
years,” she says. “It was very sad, but she could no longer recognize anyone. She
stayed in her room in Forbes, and a caregiver watched over her.”

The average life expectancy for a person with Alzheimer’s is four to eight years, so the
fact that Anna held on for so long came as a surprise to everyone—not the least Wash,
whose proven longevity had made him assume he would go on and on. Once, they
had to go to the Makati City Hall with Wash, to take care of legal papers that Anna
could no longer sign. Vicky’s husband Binky asked Wash, “What happens if Mom
Anna outlives you?” Wash looked at him incredulously as if to say, “What are you
saying? I’m perfectly fine!” (As it happened, Anna would survive him by two years.)

In truth, says Vicky, despite his love for Anna, Wash could hardly bear to see her
in her condition, because it made him feel incapable of making her better, leaving
him distressed and depressed. It was one reason why, “Until the very end, he wanted
to keep himself busy. He went to the office all the time. If he were still alive during
this pandemic, he’d go crazy because he’d have to stay home. He’d go nuts because

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