Veteran actress Lilia Dizon, mom of Christopher de Leon, dies

June 16 ------ Veteran actress Lilia Dizon passed on Monday, June 15, at 8:20 am at age 92 in her home in Paranaque. Her daughter, Toni Abad, told ABS-CBN News that her mother died to complications of her lung cancer. Lilia, the mother of veteran actor Christopher de Leon, is a former actress who rose to fame in the 1950s after appearing in movies such as "Bathaluman," "Sanda Wong" and "Kandilerong Pilak", for which she has won as Asia’s Best Actress in 1956.

The remains of Lilia is set to be cremated on Monday at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig and will be immediately brought home, according to Toni. Toni, who is one of Lilia’s two daughters with her second husband Antonio Abad, also shared her eulogy for her mother, who she described as an “extraordinary woman.”

It read: "To Pinky, Christopher, Melissa, Cory, and I, she was simply 'Mom.' But above all she loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all her heart and soul. She was always giving honor and praise to God even during the final days of her life. She often said that nothing can ever separate me from the love of God. When she couldn’t read the bible anymore I made a vow that would read it to her every night. Those are the most precious nights that I will always treasure in my heart.

"As I pay tribute to her long and abundant life, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to those who were a part of it. To the whole Balik Samahan family and to our special friends in the press, thank you. You will all have a special place in our family and in our hearts. Thank you for enriching the experience of our beloved mother. It is our family’s hope that she has enriched yours. "My mother was an extraordinary woman who took the world on with an exquisite grace that was possessed by her alone. She played many roles in her lifetime — woman, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, actress, muse, and icon — and played them so phenomenally. I stand here today, proud of the woman that she was and grateful for the woman that I am because of her.

"Although she has left this world, her spirit and legacy lives on within each of us who have had the privilege of knowing her. It is my most fervent prayer as she journeys on home to our Lord Jesus Christ that he gives her the utmost tranquility as He cradles her in the warmth of His loving embrace and wakes her to a beautiful everlasting life.

"Allow me to end this tribute with a short fragment from one of mom’s favorite songs: I’ll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through. In that small café, the park across the way the children’s carousel the chestnut trees, the wishing well. I’ll be seeing you in every lovely summer’s day in everything that’s light and gay I’ll always think of you that way. I’ll find you in the morning sun, and when the night is new, I’ll be looking at the moon but I’ll be seeing you. "You will always be in my heart and in my soul, mom. Until we see each other again. Rest now my beautiful star!"

Source: push.abs-cbn.com