Fearless.

That’s how artist Mark Lewis Higgins described his sister, Sandy Higgins, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer May 10. She was 59.

“Sandy was absolutely fearless,” he said in an email interview with Lifestyle. “I really cannot think of a single time or episode in her life when she was afraid, not even during her illness.”

Mark was not a lone witness to his petite older sister’s fabled tenaciousness. A longtime friend wrote of her: “An iron fist in a velvet glove. A serene whip. An excellence junkie.”

“She was around 5’3” but her attitude was [that of someone who’s] 6’3”,” said Mario Santos, a recent graduate of the pioneering Slim’s Fashion and Arts School, which the Higgins siblings ran after the deaths of its founder, their mother Salvacion Lim Higgins, and her sister, Purificacion. “She was scary as hell, very intimidating.”

“We’d sense if she was in the Slim’s building because iba na ang vibe. Very productive lahat,” said Li-J Eleazar-Cerujano, who was Sandy’s first scholar at Slim’s. Sandy became her boss in 2012 when Eleazar-Cerujano joined the faculty. “She had this aura na lahat takot sa kanya, not because she was mean, but because we respected her.”

Those who knew Sandy all agree, however, that underneath the tough exterior was a sweet and caring person.

“She looked after her staff, teachers and students as if they were an extended family. And she silently helped friends through sickness and financial struggles,” said leading scenographer Gino Gonzales, who had worked closely with the Higginses.

Sandy’s niece, Katrina Goulbourn Feist, said her aunt “may have carried herself wearing a tough shell, but she was truly soft-hearted.”

Bossy older sister

Sandra Louise Lim Higgins was the firstborn of fashion design icon Salvacion Lim (Slim) and Hubert Lewis Higgins. Slim helped shepherd Philippine fashion from the late ’50s to the ’80s, not only through her school which produced many well-known fashion designers, but also through her creations that set the trend in terno design and evening wear.

Mark, who was born two years after his sister, said Sandy “was very much the domineering and bossy older sister. But she was protective of me for her entire life.”

They grew up very close, even though their personalities were quite opposite, with Mark describing himself as his sister’s only “Achilles’ heel.”

“We took care of each other pretty much most of our lives, in many different ways. Such was our level of trust for each other,” he said.

While the siblings grew up around fashion, spending their preteen summers at Slim’s, Slim never insinuated her ambitions on her children, said Mark.

Slim encouraged her son’s painting, so he went on to study fine arts, then fashion design, at Parsons in New York. Her equally artistic daughter earned a degree in film production at York University in Toronto.

Stellar career

Sandy moved to Hong Kong after college to embark on what would be a stellar career in advertising.

She started as junior copywriter at Leo Burnett. At Grey HK, she became creative group head. As Grey expanded to China in the 1990s, with new offices in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, Sandy was promoted to executive creative director for what would become Grey China.

“By the time she left, around 2000, Sandy was one of three women who were the top four heads of that agency,” said Mark.

Sandy, with a partner, would go on to set up The Tank, “a small company that was somewhere between a strategic development think-tank and an advertising agency.”

On the website campaignbriefasia.com, a former colleague, Chris Kyme, wrote of Sandy: “There were the award-winning campaigns, and she was happy to sit back and let me stand up and take the spotlight. She was too humble for that . . . ”

Sandy was “always the voice of sanity at a time when 16 pitches a month were not unusual,” Kyme added. “Her absolute real strength was in managing clients. They couldn’t resist her charms and intelligent voice of reasoning when others seemed to be losing the plot.”

Sandy, Kyme said, was an “unsung hero” of HK advertising.

Discipline

Doubtless it was in the world of advertising that Sandy developed her relentless discipline, of not settling for less than perfection.

Mark quoted Sandy’s friend Yoly Ong, herself a giant in advertising, as saying: “All it took was one slightly raised eyebrow and an imperceptible sigh from her, to know it’s back to the drawing board. They could do better. With Sandy, truly, ‘the road to excellence is always under construction.’”

Kyme also quoted Carol Lam, president and CCO of Leo Burnett Greater China, who had worked under Sandy: “Sandy was always soft-spoken yet assertive. I never saw her raising her voice to anyone. Sandy taught me that you don’t need to be loud to be heard.”

By 2010, Sandy had moved back to Manila to devote her time to the legacy school of their mother. She would apply the same exacting standards from her ad agency days to Slim’s.

“She was very strict, very professional and always on time,” said Santos, the Slim’s alumnus. “She was the most organized and disciplined person I knew. It always amazed me whenever she made a list of things that could go wrong, which we should be prepared for. We can’t go without a plan B . . .

“She always said that it’s easy to find a talented designer, but it’s hard to find someone who’s talented and has excellent work ethic . . . She has a lot to do with the OC (obsessive-compulsive) and perfectionist students at Slim’s. She didn’t want us to leave Slim’s as hilaw na (half-baked) designers.”

“Sandy was organized and compassionate,” said Gonzales. “She loved paperwork and sending memos to everyone, including friends. And she
was obsessive-compulsive with scheduling, financial stuff, and all sorts of things that many of us didn’t relish.”

Focused and analytical

“We certainly argued or debated about a lot of things,” Mark said. “I think we worked so well together because we looked at things from totally different perspectives. She was extremely focused and analytical; I am more intuitive.”

When Feist was 19, she lived with Sandy in HK while the younger woman interned at Grey. Feist grew up very close to her aunt.

“I never called her Tita or Auntie. ‘No respect,’ Sandy would always sigh and say very matter of factly, shaking her head with a mischievous smile,” said Feist.

At work, Feist recalled, Sandy “was highly respected and even a little feared, but her little ‘cou-niece’ (as she called me) came in to disrupt that image by passing her in the halls when she was serious in thought and would reach out to pinch her child-like cheeks to lessen the stress of the day. Her face would soften and she would laugh as I proceeded to give her a tight hug or sneak off to do what interns do.

“Sandy shared her world with me, her work, her friends and took me under her wing and cared for me like a little sister. She had a unique, artistic mind that bridged creative passion with practical business acumen. I saw her rigorous and passionate work ethic, her dedication to her closest friends, how she looked after Mark, myself and our other relatives . . . She was more than just family to me. She was a big sister, a friend and confidant, and an inspiration.”

Frances Lim said of her cousin, “She would always plan surprises for someone in the family or friends during birthdays. She was very thoughtful. A memorable one was when she and Mark planned an ABBA disco-theme party for my 50th (and Sandy hated ABBA!). It didn’t happen just because I wasn’t in the mood. So instead, it became a trip to Istanbul. That was a precious time well spent together.”

Very private

Sandy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago, but only her closest knew about her ordeal. No one could’ve known anyway, since she continued to work. “She kept that information very private, because she didn’t want this to be the focal point of her remaining life,” Mark said.

He continued, “In that time we traveled a lot. She was involved in my solo art exhibition in February 2019. We launched one of the most successful annual student exhibitions for the school in October 2019, and we worked together intensely on the future of the school.”

He promised her that he would keep Slim’s functioning “in the best way possible” through the COVID (new coronavirus disease) crisis.

In late March, as volunteers from the fashion industry scrambled to make personal protective equipment for health-care front-liners, Sandy was also busy mobilizing home-bound volunteer students and alumni, and helping to figure out logistics of distribution and delivery. At the time, she told us, she was still undergoing treatment.

“This pretty much sums up the type of leader she was—always brave, visionary and focused,” said her brother.

Fearless, even in the face of her impending demise.