"COMING HOME"
Short Bio on "Coming Home" book cover: Amapola wrote “illicit” stories for paying schoolmates until one landed on Mother Superior’s desk. Suspension followed. It was Amapola’s preview of what writing invokes. Professionally sang at 5, starred in films at 8, hosted Bay Area TV shows, and performed world-wide onboard ships. Amapola lives in Florida with her British husband Steve Woodward.

Amapola started her singing career at the age of 2 when her Nanny took her to a kiddies radio show early one morning. In the audience were many people who would play major roles in Amapola's showbiz career in Cebu City.  Soon, 5-year-old Amapola made her film debut by dubbing other children's voices in several films and not too long after that gained her own footing as one of the popular child stars in the Visayas. However, when her father Manne Cabase became the star of his own nightclub show at the Sportsman's Club on Dewey Blvd. (now Roxas Blvd.). She bade goodbye to Cebu Normal School and was enrolled at Malate Catholic School in Manila. Happily, Amapola focused her attention on her schooling.

 

But even in these circumstances, Amapola's talent surfaced several times during her Freshman and Sophomore years when she stole away from school and often competed in singing contests in Manila. Soon when her father was offered a lucrative contract that brought the Cabase family back to Cebu, Amapola debuted in the nightclub scene with her father's band. In the mid-sixties she became the youngest bandleader in the land. Leading her band Amy and the Sounds to compliment her father's band the Manny Cabase Sextet. It was during that time when Manne Cabase hosted his own television show on ABS with his own band, a host of comics and entertainers that made the Manny Cabase Show an instant hit. That television experience made an impact on Amapola and it wasn't long before she began making solo appearances on her own television program aptly titled Amapola Sings. It was an experience she will never forget with her closest pal and classmate Marilyn Bajarias who co-produced and co-directed the show with her. That was the breaking ground for Amapola.

 

Soon she appeared in all major television programs, including regular appearance on "An Evening with Pilita". In 1972, she resumed her film career in the lead role the ill-fated ladylove of matinee idol Victor Wood in the film "Mr. Lonely". In the early 1970s, she also appeared with her co-stars: Eddie Mesa, Carina Afable, Tirso Cruz III, Ike Lozada, and many more stars in the TV musical variety program on ABS-CBN: Stop Look and Listen.

After garnering numerous awards, merits and citations, and in spite of all her professional achievements, Amapola is remarkably modest and humble when it comes to her successes as a performer. One of her friends remarked that it is so easy to forget the magnitude of what Amapola has accomplished in her lifetime "because Amapola is a WYSIWYG person",  (WYSIWYG means: What You See Is What You Get), said one of Amapola's pals. Often when asked about her talent, Amapola would say that she still has so much to learn.

Writing is now Amapola's selected endeavor.