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Sunday, January 05, 2003
Both sides now
By Jude A. Bacalso
When Jerald Mark Garcia wed Christina Marie Wagner yesterday at the Metropolitan Cathedral, it was, for all intents and purposes, a genuine Filipino wedding.
The couple met at the University of Minnesota, where they were classmates in one laboratory class. Now, they’re not only mates of the lifelong kind, but business partners in a soft business line, bridal jewelry, selling under the brand name Christina Garcia.
Both psychology majors in Minnesota, they had grown up in two different worlds. Gerald is Cebuano and Christina was raised in a small town in Wisconsin. “My hometown is so small that you could count with your fingers the number of people of other races there,” says the bride, but I was never brought up to think Asians were different.” She pauses a bit to let her statement sink in, glances at her husband, and then says, “I still don’t think of it that way.”
As fate would have it” prefixes almost every other pronouncement as Jerald asks Christina to tell their story. “Like I said, the campus is so huge that it was by fate that we would run into each other just as I was going into a classroom and he was on his way out.”
This was months after they were classmates, but Christina readily acknowledges that even at that instant, she knew exactly his name and who he was. Jerald, on the other hand, was fumbling in his mind with names, confusing her for another classmate.
Christina herself came to the rescue, providing him with the name that would be inextricably linked with his. And from that time there was little uncertainty in his head about everything.
They’re now into the 7th year of the relationship that took a legal turn yesterday; the itch was to get hitched. The romantic crossroads they were faced with two years ago, in another fateful spin.
The proposal was premeditated, “ reveals Jerald. “I was asking God for a sign that I was doing the right thing, that’s why I wanted to do it in a church.
I checked out the courtyard of the St. Paul Cathedral which is quite a drive from Minneapolis. I also double-checked the time it closed, so we could still make it to Mass.”
He told me that it was a family tradition to hear Mass on someone’s birthday. Since he was going home to the Philippines on my birthday, which was a week away, we decided to celebrate it early,” Christina discloses Jerald’s excuse for their making the trip to the cathedral.
But I was late from work (at the time she was in a group helping those afflicted with autism), and we were both sure we couldn’t make it to Mass.”
Jerald continues, “When we got there, everything was closed except for a single door. We went inside and immediately went to the courtyard where I went down on my knees and pulled out the ring from my pocket.
As fate would have it,” here, it is his turn to pause and throw a fleeting look her way, “as soon as she said Yes, the church bells rang. For no reason, since they were closed for the day and it was already late. That was His sign.”
At this, Christina smiles and says, “I still think he arranged everything that way.” Jerald admits to nothing and gives only a knowing smile.
On their way back from the less famous twin city of St. Paul to Minneapolis, they sped past a basilica on the freeway. As soon as they passed it, its own set of bells rang.
Fate or otherwise, how they’ve come this far cannot be attributed to anything short of divine.
When the subject of trans-Pacific living comes up, they both chorus: Six months here, six months there.”
The arrangement seems plausible, what with Jerald a medical student at the University of Minnesota and most of the production of their eponymous line of bridal jewelry being done in Cebu this time, not just between them, what with more orders coming.
The tiaras, necklaces, combs, veils and handbags are designed by Christina herself. “I took a few basic jewelry courses and started stringing things together for friends. Our big break came when we were carried by a couture bridal shop in Minnesota called Bridal Accents.”
From there, they have gone on to couture shows in New York for the huge October “Bridal Market Week.”
These Cebuano handcrafted accents made from cultured freshwater pearls (Christina’s birthstone), sterling silver and semi-precious stones are now carried in 15 high-end bridal salons across the United States, and showcased in a Cebuano-designed website.
Three years shy of a decade together, what really is it that will keep them together for that time tenfold?
The fact that he is…” Christina leans forward in her chair and says so carefully, “that he is Filipino. So different from all the American guys. He is a good communicator, thoughtful. It’s all part of your culture, and that’s what I love about him.”
Jerald calls her “Day”, and a slew of other nicknames. He also calls her “gangga,” which means ‘my love’.
She is beautiful but she doesn’t think she is.”
No one seems to sense the need to put into words the very obvious, but Jerald sums it best, “She is very Filipina.”
The juxtaposition of their arrhae’s design speaks volumes of their future together: the antique one-peso silver coins feature one side that shows, quite naturally, a seal of the Republic of the Philippines.
The flipside shows a woman, gown flowing in an imaginary breeze, and an unmistakable engraving above her that states: United States of America.
Just like these heirlooms, Jerald and Christina are both sides of the same coin.
(January 5, 2003 issue)
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