Darlina Ycaro - 50 Stories for 50 Years (Story # 29)
“Do you love dancing?”
Darlina Ycaro has asked this question at bus stops, at the grocery store and anywhere else she might find a future line dancer. Say yes, and she'll hand you a flyer. Tell her you have two left feet and she will set you straight.
“No, you have left and right,” she says, grinning. “I’ll teach you how to use your right foot.”
Before Darlina taught at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, she came as a student. Before she was a student she was a grieving mother trying to climb out of a seven-year depression. Returning to dance, something she'd been doing since she was three, made her feel alive again.
Her first encounter at MPNH began with Shirley Francisco, crossing the room to open the door with a warm, loud welcome. Darlina was floored. “Wow,” she thought. Today, when asked what she loves most about MPNH:
“Oh, well, it's the staff. What I feel here is I feel welcome. The staff listen.”
Two weeks later the line dance instructor had to leave and the class faced cancellation. Darlina went outside and asked herself:
"Do you think I could do it?" she remembers. "I think I could do it."
She went back in and told the program coordinator she'd teach.
This was the start of a wonderful partnership.
Darlina collected her students’ birth dates, rounded up each month’s celebrants and hosted them at MPNH’s community lunch. When walking was prescribed after knee replacement surgery, she started a walking club. It grew so popular that she opened two more groups at other locations, including one for people using walkers and wheelchairs. Darlina noticed the flowers along those walks. Soon, she was organizing gardening activities too.
Whatever Darlina dreamed up, MPNH was ready to help her try.
“I've never heard them say no. Always yes. My suggestion is always welcome. And that really made me feel I'm part of them; I'm part of the family.”
And Darlina knows how to take care of family.
When COVID-19 closed the House, she helped MPNH stay connected with its seniors, organizing WhatsApp and Messenger groups and phoning those who were not online. Then she expanded her birthday tradition into the Birthday Gift Drop-Off, using a Neighbourhood Small Grant to send fruit, a small present and a cupcake with a candle to MPNH community members.
One recipient told her, “I’m so happy somebody remembered my birthday.”
For Darlina, birthdays matter.
“I’m alive. I’m alive again, another year. You don’t know when God will take you. Look at my daughter. She was only 27. Now I keep saying, do things as if it’s your last day, because my daughter didn’t expect that. I never expected that was going to happen.”
The monthly birthday celebration is still going strong at MPNH today.
Darlina’s most lasting contribution is the line dancing teachers she has trained. One former student became so busy teaching five classes of her own that Darlina called and asked why she had stopped coming to class. When Darlina was called MPNH’s best line dancing teacher, she quickly protested that the neighbourhood house had many good teachers. Reminded that she had trained several of them, she laughed. “That’s true, that’s true.”
Darlina hopes that fifty years from now, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House will still be welcoming people, inspiring them to share their ideas and giving them room to enrich their community.
Story written by Signy Marcyniuk through an interview with the senior participant during her practicum placement at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.
50 Stories for 50 Years at MPNH is a collection of meaningful stories that celebrate the lasting impact our Neighbourhood House has had over the years. These stories come from long-time participants, families, youth, volunteers, community members, and regular visitors whose lives have been touched, supported, or transformed through our programs, services, and connections at the House.
