my folks in 1983.From 1946 to 1955 I was teaching 5th grade Home Economics in Quezon City, Philippines. Every Valentine’s day our school would have a Valentine’s Party. My friend Feliza, who was also a teacher with me asked me to come over to her apartment in Manila on the Saturday morning of the party. When I arrived, she introduced me to her husband’s first cousin, Louis (who, by the way was still in his pajamas!).
We had a short conversation about why he was in Manila and what brought him there. He was going to school in Manila, studying Business Administration. After a short while, Feliza decided that she did not want to attend the party that afternoon because she was not feeling well. So because I did not want to attend the party alone, I went back to the dormitory in Quezon City and instead went to the movies with my friends.
That Monday, Feliza came to school and during our recess she handed me a sandwich for our coffee break. She told me it came from her “cousin” Louis. It was a peanut butter & jelly sandwich! Every day that week she brought me a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, telling me that it was from Louis. After a few weeks, Feliza asked me if it was alright for Louis to come and see me at the dormitory, which I told her was okay.
About two weeks later, on a Sunday he showed up in a white, well pressed outfit. I invited him to sit down but before he sat, he took another chair and offered me a seat before he would sit down. What a gentleman!! He continued to come visit me at the dormitory every Sunday for the next few weeks and we had many conversations. He told me about his purpose of coming back to the Philippines from the U.S. to go to school under his G.I. bill He also talked about his family who came from Vigan, Ilocos Sur, that he had lost both of his parents already and had only 2 sisters left living in Vigan.
That March he came to visit one Sunday and he said to me, “ I know you are also an orphan now, as I am. How about you and me facing the world together?” With this, I questioned his “status”. I asked him right out if maybe he had another family in the States. He said to me, “ your brother works in Immigration, why don’t you have him check me out?”
So I did.
I called my brother, Manong Quiling and told him that this 45 year old guy was asking to marry me and he wanted an answer quickly or he would be leaving to go back to the States. I asked Manong Quiling to check out his immigration file and let me know if he was “ok”. The next day my brother called up and told me, “ yah Ne’- he is here to go to school on the G. I. Bill. He is okay, he is not married to anyone else!” So the following Sunday when Louis came to visit, I told him all right, I would marry. I told him my brother had checked him out and he was “okay”.
We had further discussion that day about where we would live, how many kids he wanted and “sleeping arrangements” And we agreed on everything. So we went to our parish priest to find out if we could get married at another parish, since we would be getting married in Malati Catholic Church, which was not our own parish. The priest told us it would be fine. We were married in the Malati Catholic Church on April 23, 1950. The only family members in attendance were my 2 brothers, Hector and Achilles and their wives. Everyone else lived too far away to attend. This was all of 2 months after I met Louis!
My parents would have been married 58 years today. My father passed away on February 14th, 1989: 39 years to the date that he met my mother. Happy Anniversary!
