Local woman loses mom in Typhoon

Villa Hamilton said it will be “heartbreaking” to return to her Typhoon-battered childhood home for the first time in six years for her mother’s funeral.

Hamilton learned on Sunday that her 86-year-old mother, Mariana Bernal, died after the storm — one of the strongest in record history — hit landfall in the Philippines.

“We’re not sure if it was the actual storm that was the cause of her passing or if it was just the stress of the storm,” said Vince Hamilton, Villa’s husband of 21 years.

“She just knows that she’s gone,” he said. “It’s hard to get ahold of anybody over there. It’s all in shambles right now.”

Information is coming third-hand from her family, he said. Her brother had to travel two hours on a small motorcycle to find a working telephone to inform the family of what happened.

The youngest of 11 children, Villa Hamilton has learned that her brothers and sisters survived the storm. Those in the hart-hit Iloilo Province are living in a schoolhouse at night and trying to put their homes back together during the day.

The Butler Twp. couple is trying to make plans for her to fly home early next week, but they are having a difficult time.

“We’re hoping to get her over there. I know it’s going to be hard because there’s so much death and families trying to get back,” Vince Hamilton said.

“We know she’ll be home in time for the funeral. Well, we hope,” he said, explaining funerals in the Philippines at traditionally held at home two to three weeks after a person dies.

Villa Hamilton said her mother raised her alone after her father died when she was just two weeks old. She said her mother was “very loving” and “very energetic.”

Bernal was dedicated to her Catholic faith, the couple said, and very suspicious of Vince when they began dating when he was stationed there with the Navy. But even with a language barrier, “the more I got to know her, the more she liked me,” Vince Hamilton said of his mother-in-law.

He said he is worried about his wife traveling to the devastated area because, “I don’t know what she’s going into.”

“I’ll be worried the whole time she’s gone,” he said.

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