Leah Garchik's latest Chronicle column includes a great little tidbit about local character Esperanza Thelma Paumboy, a housekeeper at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in SF who wanders the halls alternately mopping and serenading patients with everything from "Ave Maria" to "Blue Bayou." Paumboy was born and raised in the Philippines, where as explained in the Kaiser video above she once won a national singing contest.
"God gave me this wonderful talent," Paumboy says in the video. "So I wanted to give it away for everybody."
Chronicle reader Peter Drachsler emailed Garchik about Paumboy after he was recently sung to while recovering from getting a pacemaker implanted. She introduced herself as "Thelma the singing housekeeper," "And sing she did, better than Florence Foster Jenkins,” said Drachsler. "The old Kaiser was never like this."
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