An Evening with Evangeline Pascual, Miss World Philippines 1973


Evangeline Pascual (2nd to the right) with the rest of the court of Miss World 1973. Photo found on Missosology.com

I had the pleasure of sitting next to the elegant Evangeline Pascual for 4 hours on a Thursday night at Teatrino in Greenhills. I had never met her before but of course I knew all about her Miss World bid in 1973 and how she remains the one and only Filipina who came closest to winning the prestigious international beauty pageant. Evangeline Pascual, won 1st Runner-up then, reportedly turned down the crown when the winning contestant was disqualified. But that’s an old, old story and if you’re into old stories (like me) then click here to read up on it.

Back to my encounter with this Filipina beauty queen icon – my first observation – Miss Evangeline Pascual is au naturel;  from head to toe I saw no sign of surgical procedures. But OMG she was downright gorgeous as you can see in the photo below! While I did not ask her how she manages to keep on looking like a beauty queen, I did notice that when she was offered pizza by our host she turned it down, opting instead to nurse a diet cola. I was going to grab a slice but Evangeline’s self-control put me to shame, LOLOL! And then as I glanced down the rest of her, I could see that she was as slim as 20-year-old. I told myself that discipline must be a part of why Evangeline Pascual remains eye candy to this day.

The second thing I noticed about her is that she is GENEROUS with her compliments. We were in Teatrino Greenhills that night as judges in the Miss Gay Universe 2011 and Evangeline Pascual complemented every single contestant that came out on stage with the word ‘Fabulous!’ being her favorite utterance of the night. She would say it loud enough for even the contestant to hear. I was quite surprised at her exuberance and thought to myself that this was why she remains beautiful to this day – Evangeline Pascual is not stingy with complements and speaks them out to encourage. I was learning a lot from watching this lady…

Evangeline Pascual is even more beautiful today! That's her in the feathers and me next to her 🙂

But her beauty does not come from just the good things in life. Part of it comes from being an overcomer. I discovered, at one point in our kwentuhan, that she was widowed while her children were still young and it squarely fell upon her to raise three children on her own. No, she did not remarry and I think it’s because she’s a one-man-per-lifetime-only woman. At least that’s how she struck me. I don’t know if you would agree but there are women who come out of tragedies with a deeper beauty that shines through the creases and lines.

Things are much better now of course;  all her children are happily living abroad, in the US and Australia, enjoying successful careers and producing offspring every now and then. Yes, Evangeline Pascual is a Lola but who could imagine that looking at her in that sexy, feathery brown get-up??!!

Currently, Evangeline Pascual lives life as a multimedia personality (bongga!). She’s a beauty queen turned actress, a broadcaster AND a social worker. She hosts a daily radio show called “Echoes of the Heart” on DWIZ 882 and has been at it for the past 16 years! So if you’re looking for beauty AND LOVE find it in…  Echoes of the Heart!

 

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