Lorna belonged to the first batch of college graduates of STCQC in 1967. (The college department was moved from San Marcelino to Quezon City in academic year 1966-67.) She majored in journalism and English, and after one year as a full-time high school teacher at STC Manila, began her career as a print journalist at various newspapers and magazines. In 1989 she cofounded, with seven other journalists, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She has been a freelance writer and book editor since ending her stint as readers’ advocate (ombudsman) of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Three of her books – Coming to Terms, Duet for EDSA, and Public Faces, Private Lives – have won a National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle. Her husband, the late Vicente G. Tirol, was a print journalist, teacher, and trainer of journalists in Asia and the Pacific Rim for the Press Foundation of Asia. She is Inay to two sons and their spouses and Lola to three grandchildren.