My memories of Delia Razon

by Boy Villasanta

When the news broke out that veteran actress Delia Razon passed away last Saturday, memories of her keep on rushing in my mind until this very moment.

I remember when I first saw her in a taping of a sitcom in the old Broadcast City–which housed the stations Channel 2 (Banahaw Broadcasting Company), Channel 9 (Radio Philippines Network), in Tandang Sora and Channel 13 (Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation) although BBC had to vacate earlier for some reasons unknown to me—in Quezon City.

Ma’am Delia was very bubbly and friendly during our set visit that I was amazed by her personality.

She must be in her early fifties at the time.

She was gorgeous and gregarious.

I would still see her in many showbiz functions and we had short but meaningful conversations.

When I shot the documentary drama “Tio Ticong (Alay Kay Vicente Salumbides,” a doc for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) on the life and times of film pioneer in the 1920s Vicente Salumbides, I got Razon on cam because she was directed by Salumbides in the black and while LVN Pictures’ project, “Florante at Laura” (1949) as Flerida.

Tita (a term of endearment to an older woman by blood or affinity) Delia was very accommodating in my interview with he to recall and cherish her acting days with Salumbides.

She said she loved and treasured the experiences she had with Tio Ticong which Salumbides was fondly called.

Until Carla Abellana, daughter of actor Rey “PJ” Abellana and actress Rea Reyes and granddaughter, became an actress.

Because Carla lived with her mom Rea who stayed with Razon, Lucy May Grytz Reyes in real life, I would see Tita Delia in Horseshoe Village—where the Reyeses reside until now—when I would ask for an interview with the veteran star and the young actress,

Ma’am Delia will always be remembered as the loquacious LVN star.

Just a few years ago, I went again to her house in the middle of the night to ask if she was indeed suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Her daughter Mia was the one who opened the door for me.

“Yes, but she is already asleep,” she said.

Years had passed and all I heard was her illness.

Tita Delia is in eternal sleep.

She was 94.