Marlyna Orat Sevilla was born in Bogo, Cebu, Philippines, in 1935. As a child, she had autistic features; one was her delayed development in spoken language. Before the age of five, she could only say five words. The very basic ones—“mama,” “papa,” “ata” (give), “tate” (hot chocolate),” and “Zoom” (Rose, her elder sister).
Marlyna messed up her mother’s crochet work so many times until she was given her own yarn and hook to practise making a chain. The white yarn turned black, but the chain had perfect tension. Time for real crochet—granny’s square. Crocheting has a special and sentimental value for her. She learned it before she talked normally. Her hands were busy while her tongue was idle.
During the WW II Japanese occupation of the Philippines, she heard the bombing and the cries of terror and horror, saw a sea of evacuees running from the enemies day and night without water and food. She saw the glittering bayonets. This war, she survived.
Two years into Philippine Liberation, her parents separated. For a while, Marlyna was also separated from her siblings and her mother. Her broken family experienced unhappy and dark years. She remembered those days of making a guessing game out of the next meal and scraping shrimp paste from the leaf wrapper.
After migrating to Canada in 1967, she worked with the province of Ontario for more than twenty-five years. She took courses in business administration, journalism / short story writing, and leadership training from Toastmasters International. Her Service Excellence Award in Recognition of Excellence in the Delivery of Customer Service from the Ministry of Housing was her crowning achievement.
Marlyna believes that family unity is the profound foundation of a functional community, that family should not be marked by division but by vision of familial love.
The author and her husband are currently in Bogo as snowbirds.