Donnie Tantoco on his grandmother GRT’s Greatness of Purpose
Archbishop Brown with the third-generation Tantocos. First row, from left: Quito Lopez, Pam Lopez, Michael Huang, MJ Tantoco and Junjun Lopez; second row, from left: Donnie Tantoco, James de Jesus, Rica de Jesus, Anton Huang, Kathy Huang, Katrina Lobregat, Maricar Tiangco, Kathleen Pineda and Gippy Tantoco; third row, from left: Fr. Moises Ciego, Fr. Roy Bellen, Archbishop Charles James Brown, Fr. Eric Castro, Paul Tiangco and Eman Pineda.
(Editor's note: The DAILY TRIBUNE Social Set section is pleased and honored to share the eulogy delivered by Bienvenido "Donnie" Tantoco III during the High Mass held at the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart to commemorate the birth centenary of his grandmother, Gliceria "Glecy" Tantoco, foundress of the Rustan's Department Store.)
A very blessed morning to all of you. Thank you so very much for being here to pray for, to remember, to give our respect and to express our individual and collective gratitude and love for GRT on the occasion of what would have been her 100th birthday.
It's so beautiful and wonderful to see us like this in a shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as one community, one church and one corporate family celebrating GRT. We are all beneficiaries of her extraordinary life.
I prayed for guidance when Ninay Nedy (Nedy Tantoco) asked me to speak about Lola Glecy during this most special Mass.
And then I realized something that I was not so aware of before. To some extent, we have drifted, I have drifted, from GRT's founding purpose for Rustan's. And we can be a lot more aligned with her way and her core values.
The world today is extremely different from what GRT faced. But still, more than ever, I believe we need to connect our work, our character and our values, with roots planted in Rustan's by GRT. So, the purpose of my talk right now is to help replant seeds of GRT in the soils of our minds, hearts and souls.
We all know GRT spent almost every waking hour of her 70 years working. Her work ethic was supernatural and superhuman. Perhaps that's why she produced more greatness in one relatively short lifetime than others who lived much longer than her.
