- Date Of Birth: June 27, 1939
- Date Of Death: November 1, 2015
- State: Virginia
Nycthia Ophelia Magbanua (quot;Nikkiquot; or quot;Nyquot;) was born in 1941 in the city of Dingle in the Philippines to school teacher and administrator Remedios, and lawyer Bernardino. The family relocated to nearby Pototan, but with the Japanese occupation in 1942, they retreated to a thatched hut on their family farm from which they could easily flee into the hills for safety. Tenants on the farm called little Nikki quot;Amaquot; which translates into quot;our mistress,quot; a testament to her personality and demeanor beyond a toddlers years. At the age of six, she applied her verbal gifts to the art of declamation, a structured form of public speaking, in which she competed and excelled through high school. She also sang in school choirs and completed high school early at age 15 with highest honors. Nikki started college at the University of the Philippines, Iloilo City (UPIC), where she entered a 2-year pre-nursing program before attending the St. Pauls Hospital School of Nursing. Upon graduation at the top of her class at the age of 19, however, she was prevented from sitting for her boards, which required that she be 21. Happily, the destruction of public documents during the Japanese occupation and a lawyer father with ambitions for his first-born, resulted in the appearance of documents establishing 1939 as her official birth date. Nikki then accepted a position in Lourdes Hospital, Manila as a neonatal nurse (the director had concerns that she looked too young to be taken seriously by adult patients). In 1963, the 22-year old Nikki bought her plane ticket to work in the U.S. through a nurse exchange program, and returned home just weeks before departure to tell her family of her plans. As Nikki left her home country, she gave her parents her savings to help pay for the education of her two younger brothers Rene and Michael. On arrival to the U.S., Nikki shared an apartment with five other nurses at Newark City Hospital (now UMDNJ Medical School, where her daughter graduated 39 years later). Within the first year, she met Daniel C. Prieto, Jr. M.D., a surgical resident and the older brother of her best friend from UPIC. In the time they were dating, Nikki won a local beauty contest (crowned quot;Miss Kayumanggiquot;) but was forced to move to Kingston, Canada in 1965 when her visa expired.
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