IT is always nice to reconnect with people you have not seen or heard of from, something made easy by internet nowadays.

But is is even better to reunite face to face with such people. This was true for me recently as I was able to meet someone after around 40 years, this after reconnecting previously through FB.

Last Monday morning, I picked up Vilma Sta. Rosa- Plagata from SM Bicutan to fulfill a promise that when she visits here from California where she has been based since 1987 that I will bring her to a friend of mine, sports magazines collector Aris Garcia in Muntinlupa.

Vilma was a track and road race champion in the early to mid 80s when running was a very popular sport, and definitely, she won more than she lost when it came to 5K and 10K races she joined.

Me, road running was my beat and I covered a lot of road races which Vilma topped, but I lost track of her. It turned out she went to the United States to give birth , out of wedlock though she and the man eventually got married and settled down in California.

She did that because she was still in her mid 20s and because of running, won a plane ticket to America, studied there and is now a medical technologist, doing well at that, and drives a Lexus, something she never imagined before.

It was a continuous exchange of stories for us in the car, her initial struggles there, her family, one son is a good volleyball player, her early life here that revolved around sports, and her Gintong Alay days.

.After getting lost a few times along the way, we made it finally to Aris’s place where inone room in his office, he has more than 12,000 old sports magazines.

Vilma and I went through over a hundred issues of Sports Weekly Magazine and she was very happy every time we chance upon the stories that I did about her winning races.

She took pictures of the printed stories, excited about the fact she now can show her apo back home that indeed, she was a champion athlete.

I even called up Mike Keon so he could also reconnect with Vilma.

But we were not even finished for the day, she went with me to the Philippine Sports Commission office and I introduced her to Comm. Bong Coo. They were together in a SEA Games event way back.

Two days later, I went to her sister in law’s place in the Acacia Estates in Taguig for dinner, this time with her husband, whose name was very familar, more so if you were a football fan in the 80s.
His name, Oliver Plagata, son of national coach Orlando. . .

Oliver and Vilma were together at FEU, both of them collegiate athletes, though Vilma was the more known one because of her success in the UAAP track events.

The couple actually came from Clark City to watch Vilna’s older brother Rene, also a former track runner, who was competing at a seniors’ track meet.

Over dinner, the exchange of stories continued, more wth Oliver whose biggest frustration was in not being named a regular national team member despite always being in the training team.

Qctually, his father warned him already about it. It turned out local football officials had issues wth Orlando who was an honest and straight forward man.

Oliver also played for the San Miguel Corporation football team where he sad he was the only indio player in the line up, the rest were mestizos. He also saw action for Utex which had a football team at one time.

I also learned that the previous night, they had as dinner guest our common friend Dilip Budhrani who in the 80s went into race organizing with partner Mike Advani.

Vilna remembered the days that Dilip used to give her sports apparel items including shoes.

You see it really is good to reconnect with people, as it was with me, Vilma, and Dilip.

By the time you are reading this, my family and I , my two kids, apo, and the missus, will be in Tokyo for a week long vacation with my kids helping us out on the expenses side.

This will be a well deserved ome for me and my wife, our apo Livi is excited about her Disneyland trip, a treat by her Tita Janis.

This will be my second time in Japan

In 2019, we also went there but to Osaka and Kyoto, at this age of mine, I and Marussa really should be doing more of this, enjoying our remaining years.

I will be doung my next pieces from Tokyo, okay?