Remedios Alcantara Dela Cruz
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Nanay Remy”
8 February 1954 — 8 July 2022 · aged 68
Nurse, OFW and Nanay who raised a family from Riyadh, one balikbayan box at a time
Quezon City, Philippines Born in Lubao, Pampanga Resting at Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina CityAbout Remedios
Remedios Dela Cruz packed her first balikbayan box in 1981, and by the time she packed her last she had sent home more than ninety. Born in Lubao, Pampanga, the daughter of a rice farmer and a seamstress, she earned a scholarship to the University of the Philippines College of Nursing in Manila and graduated in 1976. She spent five years as a staff nurse at the Philippine General Hospital, where the night shifts taught her to be gentle and quick in equal measure.
In 1981, with three small children and an unpaid hospital loan, she accepted a contract at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. She meant to stay two years. She stayed eighteen, then spent four more in Dubai at Rashid Hospital, calling home every Sunday on prepaid phone cards, missing graduations, fiestas and her own mother's funeral. She never complained. Instead she sent ham and chocolates, school shoes, a sewing machine for her mother-in-law and a letter in every box. Her salary built the family house in Lubao and put all three children through school. Back in Manila in 2004, she taught clinical nursing at a Quezon City university and mentored young nurses preparing to work overseas, patiently explaining which contracts to avoid.
She sang 'Dahil Sa Iyo' at every party, cooked a kare-kare that made grown men go quiet, and led the Saturday rosary at her parish. Her husband, Eddie, a Cubao–Quiapo jeepney driver who raised the children while she was away, died in December 2019 after forty-three years of marriage; she carried on, a little more quietly. Remy died on 8 July 2022 after a long illness, aged sixty-eight, surrounded by her three children and eight grandchildren, one of whom is now a nurse.
“A nurse's love travels farther than any plane ticket.”
- Faith
- Catholic
- Place of birth
- Lubao, Pampanga
- Resting place
- Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina City
- Passed away
- 8 July 2022, Quezon City
Funeral Mass
Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Nanay Remy Nursing Scholarship
Help the sons and daughters of overseas Filipino workers finish nursing school at Our Lady of Fatima University, as Remy always wished.
$2,109 raised of $5,000
42%20 recent contributions
- JR
Jean-Guy Roy gave $142.50 · 4y ago
“In honour of a wonderful woman.”
- MN
Marie-Claire Ndongo gave $142.50 · 4y ago
“Pole sana to the family.”
- AN
Anonymous gave $47.50 · 4y ago
“For the children's school fees.”
- AO
Abena Owusu gave $9.50 · 4y ago
- JR
Jean-Guy Roy gave $95 · 4y ago
“A small token of love.”
Life journey
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
University of the Philippines College of Nursing1972 – 1976 · Manila
Scholar and first in her family to finish college.
Married Eduardo Dela Cruz
1976 · Lubao, Pampanga
A marriage of forty-three years.
Staff Nurse
Philippine General Hospital1976 – 1981 · Manila
Pediatrics and general wards, nights and weekends.
Staff Nurse, Obstetrics
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre1981 – 1999 · Riyadh
Eighteen years abroad as an overseas Filipino worker.
Clinical Instructor in Nursing
Our Lady of Fatima University2004 – 2016 · Quezon City
Mentored young nurses preparing to work overseas.
Parish rosary leader
Sto. Niño Parish2005 – 2022 · Project 6, Quezon City
Led the Saturday rosary for seventeen years.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Remedios is survived by
- Joy Dela Cruz-Reyes· Daughter
- Carlo Dela Cruz· Son
- Mia Dela Cruz-Santos· Daughter
- 8 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Remedios.
Knew Remedios? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- CC
Son
Nanay called every Sunday at seven for eighteen years. When she finally came home she kept calling at seven, from the next room, and we would pretend to pick up. That was our family joke. I would give anything for one more pretend call.
- NC
Cousin in Toronto
Remy's first balikbayan box reached me in Lubao in 1981 with a pair of red shoes. I wore them to my wedding; now my daughter has worn them too. Tell her children their mother's boxes crossed oceans, and so did her love.
- DS
Retired pediatrician, Philippine General Hospital
Remy was my ward nurse in 1978. At three in the morning she found a fever the doctors had missed and made me come back from my sleep. She was right. She was always right, and always polite about it. PGH lost a fine nurse when she left for Riyadh; Riyadh gained a better one.
- FD
Parish priest, Sto. Niño Parish
Her rosary was never hurried and her sacristy was never dusty. Twenty-two years away from her children had taught her, she told me, that every parish is a family and every family a parish. I will miss her gentle corrections of my homilies.
- AO
Fellow nurse at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh
In the staff housing Remy was the one who made sure every new nurse had a pot of rice and a phone card. She taught us to count the days as 'one less' instead of 'one more.' I still count that way, wherever I am.
- MS
Neighbour and fellow rosary group member
Nanay Remy led our Saturday rosary for seventeen years. Her voice shook on the Sorrowful Mysteries and never on the Glorious. She kept a list of everyone's sick relatives in her purse and called each one by name. When my husband was in hospital she arrived with arroz caldo and stayed the night.
