When Ella Bacolod de Guzman passed away May 17, West Seattle, the Greater Seattle Filipino community, and Ella's Filipino community back home lost a kababayan, a Tagalog term meaning "fellow community member." She was 75 and had fought a tough battle with cancer. She left behind four sons, two daughters and a husband, "Doc Camilo" de Guzman, who owns the Animal Clinic of Roxbury he opened in 1979. But, according to her family, she also left behind a smile and laughter.

"She always smiled and that is how the community here knows her, the lady who smiles all the time and brings laughter," her husband said.

"The de Guzman's are a great family and Ella was their heart and soul," former Mayor Greg Nickels told the West Seattle Herald. He was invited to speak at her memorial. "When we attended Filipino community events she always went out of her way to make us feel welcome. Her children reflect that spirit of inclusion and it was on full display at Ella's Memorial."

Some called Ella the "Former First Lady" because, from 1988-2003 her husband served as President, Filipino Community of Seattle, a tight-knit group of over 20,000 in King County. She served on their Council-Board and raised money for victims of both Mount Pinatubo in 1991, and a flood that hit her home province of Masbate just prior to that.

Ella and Camilo had two daughters and four sons, Eileen, Evalyn, Cris, Carlo, Camilo and Conrad. The West Seattle Herald wrote about Conrad's rugby team here.

Doc Camilo, now 74, bought a house on Vashon Island in 1969. His family left the Philippines and joined him about two years later. They would then buy a house behind West Seattle High School in 1976 where he now lives, and the kids all graduated West Seattle High School. All the boys wrestled. Eileen played volleyball and Evalyn and Camilo played tennis. Cris, Camilo and Carlo also played football. Camilo also did track.

"When Mom went to watch the boys' wrestling matches, she couldn't help but really get into, mimicking my brothers' movements while she was on the bleachers," said Eileen. "We all felt sorry for the people who sat next to her because they became unwilling 'opponents.' They scooted away."

"We came from, I would say, not rich, not poor, but below middle class," said Camilo of his own background, adding that he and his wife "came from the same level."

He added, "I grew up with only two or three shirts and two pants and my mom was a single mom, and had to wash them. She used banana leaves to wrap my lunch, not a bag. I had steamed rice, fish, and maybe banana."

Eileen and Evalyn said with grins that their mom was spoiled by her dad, even though she was one of five girls and three boys.

"When I graduated from college my first work was the vet for Masbate National Agricultural School, where I met my wife," Camilo said. "She was a physical education teacher there."

"Dad remembers her wearing shorts," laughed Evalyn.

"At that time she was the only one among teachers wearing shorts," said Camilo.

Eileen interrupted, "It caught Dad's eye."

"The USDA was accepting foreign graduates, veterinarians in a meat inspection division," Camilo recalled. "Then (President) Nixon froze hiring of foreign grads, so I had to find work driving a taxi cab, eventually getting a job in a viral research program at UW. I worked very hard to get my (veterinarian) license. in 1971 I was fortunate to pass board exam. I was 35."

Camilo de Guzman was the first Filipino-American to get a veterinary license in the state of Washington.

Camilo worked for Pet Care Center (2950 Southwest Avalon Way) owner Dr. Walter Schuehle, then a solo practitioner, beginning in 1972.

"He was the veterinarian who gave me a break," Camilo said of Schuehle. "In 1976 he took a three-year sabbatical to Mexico so I leased the clinic and saved money to start my own practice.

He also worked on the side during weekends in his Vashon Island garage converted to a vet clinic, on the main highway near the Presbyterian Church. His patients included horses, cows, pigs, and goats, in addition to dogs and cats.

Camilo's family recalled that the ladies at the United Methodist Church of Vashon Island taught Ella how to garden and sew. But Ella's kids say she sometimes had trouble cooking.

"She'd hide burnt dishes from Dad," Evalyn gigged.

"She might have burned the bottom of her cooking pots because where she grew up they cooked over a wood fire, with no electricity," Eileen suggested. "When she got a modern stove in America she put the electricity on high, like a fire. She always cooked on high."

"She'd make bread and braid it," said Cris, whose memories of Mom's cooking are more sympathetic. "When we get to it and the butter and blackberry jam comes out we attack it. The braid didn't last too long."

Carlo eventually built a new house on Vashon where the old one stood, where he lives with his family.

"Mom hated needles," recalled Eileen. "Whenever she went to a doctor for a blood test she would scream and someone would hold her. She would cry even more than we would when we needed shots. she was very sympathetic that way."

On April 24 Ella and family members returned to the Philippines as she wanted to say goodbye to her extended family there. When she arrived she became to weak to take the additional flight and boat ride to Masbate. Instead, many visited her, closer to Manilla where she stayed and was hospitalized twice before returning to Seattle. Her family said she was alert and overjoyed to see her family there.

"Shortly before Ella died, she said something from her hospital bed that sounded to her family like 'apo-joos.'

"We thought she wanted apple juice," said Cris. "The nurse said she could not drink any. We finally figured out she was really saying 'Apo Dios,' a call to God."