IT IS the day before the late Macrina Olarte is buried. I am with cuzzes Jack and Jona, paying proper respects. Bubut is asleep, his sister tells us. I query her about this love story of their parents Bubut once related to me, and find myself led to the only sister of the late Macrina.
We are talking when the Catholic Women’s League leads an afternoon rosary… and pick up after. I ask her how it is that her late sister and she have relations in Itogon. She is unsure of how exactly, except that one of her relatives married into the Fianzas, “the rich ones,” she says.
Jack, Jona, and I are outside when Bubut awakes, and I quiz him this time. He is not sure too, who married into the Itogon Fianzas. I tell him I am reprinting the love story of his parents I wrote several years ago.
Here it is, one among many a lovely anecdote to remember Bubut’s mother by.
“So one day Bubut is in Itogon, and is hailed by one Peping Fianza, who is playing the guitar. I imagine that at that instant, the guitar is an instant point of union between the two. Said Fianza proceeds to relate to said Olarte Jr. that the former is instrumental (pun alert) in securing the latter’s mother’s hand for Olarte Sr., since it is Fianza who plays the guitar (pun, pun) for Bubut’s dad when he serenades Bubut’s mom. In Itogon.
“Itogon? As it turns out, Bubut’s mother Macrina is a young teacher assigned to Itogon, where she has Fianza relatives, when the late Olarte Sr. appears there. In Bubut’s words, his father is on his mother’s turf, and I guess that that isn’t exactly easy for him. So a Fianza instrumentally being instrumental might indeed help matters. His words to Bubut: “Awan ka nu awan ak.” The romance takes itself to the altar, and the love story continues, lasts, and lasts.”
“So,” I ask again as I did in 2014, “How does that Peping Fianza relate to Peter?” We still wonder. Again, Bubut and Peter have yet to talk about this, would you believe?
The rain, it begins its afternoon shower, and cuzzes and I must hideaway or get drenched. As we drive home, we talk of this new C Triple A supermart that has just about opened in Camp Seven, and who’s been and not. I have, and remark that it was like walking into a California deli.
I affirm this as the Js go home and I head to the deli and put things into a cart, still marveling at the love stories, like between Bubut’s parents’, that last and last and last.
