Swear in 244 new citizens

Queens Village resident Ursola Wheeler had memorized all the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner. She knew that the 13 stripes on the American flag represented the first 13 states in the nation, and could pinpoint the number of U.S. Representatives at 435.
And when the name of her homeland - the Philippines - was read aloud during Citizenship Day at Queensborough Community College on Friday, February 16, Wheeler said she felt a few tears fall from her eyes.
“Maybe tears of joy, maybe tears of happiness, maybe tears of who knows,” the smiley 76-year-old said of her swearing in with 244 new citizens hailing from 100 different countries.
During the Queensborough ceremony, Councilmember David Weprin congratulated the new Americans, saying, “From this day forward all of you share the responsibility of living up to the demands of American citizenry. Enjoy all it has to offer and never forget what efforts it took for you and millions of others to call this great country your home.”
When asked what year she left the Philippines, Wheeler replied, “1975. But so many things have happened since.”
Wheeler first left Quezon City, in the Philippines when she was hired to teach math in Nigeria. At the time, Wheeler - then named Ursola Magno - was married to Pedro Magno II, a supervisor at Philip Morris, and had four children - Evelyn, Pedro III, Mary Jane, and Angel, the youngest who was in fifth grade.
“It’s really difficult to leave my children because they are studying. I needed money for the education of my children,” Wheeler remembered. “My position in the Philippines is good, but the money is not enough so I have to go out.”
For 12 years, Wheeler traveled to Africa from the Philippines with a group of up to 120 Filipina women to teach classes of 30-40 students, some older than she was.
“The people [in Nigeria] are very respectful to you because you are a teacher,” Wheeler said. “They were eager to learn because this is the first time they can go to school.”
On her summer breaks, about one and a half months per year, she would return home, and occasionally her family - her husband, daughter Mary Jane, and Angel - made the trip with her to Africa, stopping to sightsee on the way in Italy, the Vatican, and Amsterdam. Several times Wheeler traveled through the United States and Canada on her way to Africa, and in 1987, she decided to stay in North America - in New Jersey, where many of her friends had made their home to teach in local Catholic schools.
“I said, ‘I will stay.’ I went into healthcare because my dream when I was in high school was to become a nurse, but I was not able to finish that. Instead I took up education,” Wheeler said.
Back home in the Philippines, her husband continued to watch over Wheeler’s grown children.
“He told me, ‘You have to go when you have to go,’” Wheeler remembered. “Without the money, it’s impossible for the children to go to college.”
Five years later, her husband died from intestinal cancer. Wheeler only found out the reason from Pedro’s death certificate. As a new immigrant, she feared that if she returned to the Philippines, she would be unable to come back to the United States to work.
In 1993, Wheeler married Paul Wheeler, of Queens Village, and later that year, Ursola’s daughter came to the United States to work in healthcare, just like her mother.
Three years ago, Pedro III also made the trip.
Meanwhile, Wheeler plans continue working as a home health aide with no plans of retiring, “I enjoy taking care of people. I enjoy doing it,” she said. With 11 grandkids - some in the United States, the rest in the Philippines - Wheeler said she doesn’t have time to get tired.