Susan Roces preferred not to go to the hospital or consult a doctor before passing away because she was “ready” for her time, according to her daughter Sen. Grace Poe.
Poe mentioned her mother’s desire in her eulogy on the final night of the wake, as shown on Poe’s Facebook page yesterday, May 25.
“Nung malapit na siyang mamayapa, hindi pa namin alam din pero kinausap ko siya (Before she passed away, we do not know at the time but I talked to her),” Poe recalled. “Sabi ko (I said), ‘Ma, can you please see the doctor or go to the hospital? If not for yourself, at least for us.’ Ang sabi niya, ‘I’ve been considering — I’ve been putting the feelings of other people before my own ever since. I’m already 80 years old, I’m ready. This time, I will think of me,’ and I really think she deserves that,” Grace Poe stated.
Poe also said how her mother warned her not to get engaged in any issues. The senator then emphasized that Roces instructed her to fight for the truth by following in the footsteps of Poe’s late father, the “King of Philippine Movies,” Fernando Poe Jr.
“Ang sinasabi niya, ‘Ayokong magkaroon ng anak na bayani dahil ang mga bayani bantayog na lang at estatwa. Hindi ko sila makakasama,’” she said. “Pero ma, ang mga tinuro mo sa akin ay katangian ng bayani. Hindi ko kaya palagi pero ‘yun ‘yung tinuro mo sa akin,” she said.
Grace Poe is the adoptive daughter of Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, both celebrities.
Grace then delivered her farewell message to her mother Susan Roces, adding that the veteran actress would always be “the woman she most admires and most scared of.”
Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares is a Filipina senator who is also a businesswoman, educator, and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2012, she was the chairwoman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.
At the age of 80, Roces died of a cardiopulmonary arrest on May 20, 2022. Senator Grace Poe, her daughter, announced her death.
Roces was put to rest today, May 26, in the Manila North Cemetery, next to the tomb of Fernando Poe Jr.
