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Thursday, March 16, 2006
Magsaysay: A grand lady
By Jo Magsaysay
Whatever
Frankly borloloy, an audacious attempt to imitate whazziz (Any Warhol?) with his crumpled beer cans, soda pop bottles and license plates passing for 3-D art…this one is surprisingly effective, actually successful; in fact, it is almost gorgeous!
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Whatever am I blubbering about? The invitation of course: a flattering repro of an old color portrait of Luz Mancao Sandiego all dolled up with a collage of gold threaded kimona, a gold paineta, a string of pearls and earrings. Startling, it practically grabs you from its frame, yet so irresistible it is an adoration celebrating the birthday of Luz Mancao who is all of fabulously 80 years old!
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Old friendships never die and having known her more than 60 years ago and having her breeze through my life like a gentle whisper of a butterfly kiss, sometimes and at other times whirling harum-scarum like a runaway tornado, how could I not be there to celebrate her glory? Luz lives life to the fullest with zest and joy de vivre. Marrying the love of her life, Payling (Atty. Rafael Sandiego), raising their nine children, running a household, juggling finances, paying off debts, balancing a budget, teaching Physical Education in the University of San Carlos, managing a bakery and coffee shop, teaching ballet and modern dancing in her home studio, agonizing over a long illness of Payling from an unknown disease later diagnosed as psittacosis (parrot fever), emigrating to America, struggling to make both ends meet for the family, working as sales clerk, catering food to Filipinos, peddling fresh lumpia and empanada a dollar each, coming home after 25 years to tackle the Mancao farmlands in Carcar, spearheading the preservation of the Carcar Heritage Society, erecting a four-storey building from the ashes of a disastrous fire that razed her home, Luz has survived it all. Her stupendous coping mechanism has been geared around an attitude of I-can-do-it to every challenge, trusting in God’s infinite goodness and compassion all the way.
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Growing up with Mommy Luz, her nine children have absorbed all these trials and triumphs so that they ,too, face life with courage, enthusiasm, with confidence… “like Mommy.” Now, it’s pay-back time! Pooling together all their resources and creative talents, all nine children and their spouses, Sandra Voelker, Jute and Rosie, Dogging and Jojo, Pepe, Diego and Bianca, Raffy and Martha, Val and Bogging, Stella, Robert and Sharon got their acts together, going all the way, pulling no stops to give Mommy Luz a birthday celebration she will always remember as “the best ever!”
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A thanksgiving mass at Carmelite church to start the day off with blessings, breakfast for the nuns who assured the family, their prayers would guarantee fine weather. Sure enough, a clear and cloudless sky hung over Fort San Pedro where almost 500 guests enjoyed the bountiful buffet and the entertainment of the Barrio Fiesta. Val Sandiego, who like his Mommy, can do almost anything, did everything to mobilize his brothers and sisters and their children, who eagerly volunteered their own “things” too, like taking the picture of every single guest upon his entry, giving each one a claim card for the finished photo completely framed and mounted on a small basket holder. Pretty neat souvenirs!
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Our Philippine folk dances are always enchanting and they never fail to thrill me watching with them. Still, Val Sandiego manages to inject his own special touch, an adrenaline surge of vibrance, exuberance and showmanship that reflect the Filipino traits of charming pasikatan when his nephews and nieces went through their lively paces in such pretty costumes.
When Luz took center stage in a Maria Clara gown and parasol to dance with her five good looking sons (Robert, the sixth, was unable to come home from America having used up his vacation leave to bring his family over to spend Christmas here), each one taking turns to whirl and waltz her around the stage, there was not a dry eye among the audience: I know Ester Yap Borromeo was sobbing her heart out while my own tears, unhidden, streamed down.
Sentimental? Definitely! And why not, this was the moment to cherish forever.
A grand finale staged to highlight the musical talents of 25 grandchildren had them singing and dancing while some played the guitar, violin and harpsichord.
Someone said it’s “a family that sings, dances, plays and prays together, stays happily together ever after.”
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Friends of Luz, her relatives, sister Rita Racoma, brother Mike, in-laws Titang and Nena, her special “gang of 8” of the USC faculty, Ylac colleagues, sisters from St. Theresa's College and St. Catherine’s where we both graduated in high school along with Carmen Reynes Fortunato, her co-preservationists and conservationists of the Carcar heritage led by Manny Castro and Gerry Noel Alfafara who presented her with a replica of the Carcar Rotunda to encase her birthday cake, her former ballet students Cecile Yared and Lily Yared (Mrs. Michael) Overs who parlayed a fortune in “pizza pizza” franchises came all the way from Canada as did “my driver in the States” Carmelita Villarosa, an attorney who came just for the occasion, the mother and family of Luz’ daughter-in-law, Diego’s wife Bianca Bolt from Switzerland, her cousin Nympha Panuncialman Honrado Roux, a lovely lady who grew up in Spain and who presented me with her gorgeous Spanish shawl which I admired (“It’s a custom in Spain”) but which I politely turned down; Vice Mayor Mike Rama tracing a family history of kinship with a Visayan love song that he sang with fervor. All shared in the jubilant celebration that ended with a riotous display of fireworks.
Just when the guests were leaving, the sky sprinkled a heavy shower, a heavenly benediction to a grand lady on a most memorable 80th birthday.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 16, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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