A lifetime of giving: At 104, Mommy Med joins Daddy Soc

MOTHEROF THEGROOM Remedios “Mommy Med” Rodrigo walks her son Francisco “King” Jr. down the aisle tomeet his bride, Boots Anson, in this 2014 photograph.MommyMed died on Monday at the age of 104. —INQUIRER PHOTO

“Ang tagal ko nang matanda  (I’ve been old for such a long time).”

So mused Remedios “Mommy Med” Enriquez Rodrigo with a quiet chuckle, when she celebrated her 104th birthday on Nov. 18.

It amused us, her loved ones, friends and colleagues in her various advocacies who went to greet her in what had seemed like an annual religious pilgrimage.

The petite and fragile-looking widow of the illustrious senator, statesman, poet, playwright, actor and broadcaster Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo Sr., always cast a ready smile despite the discomforts of old age.

It must be her faith that sustained her, friends and family observed of this papal awardee, wife, mother, grandmother, friend and civic and religious leader.

Last year, she told eldest son Francisco “King” Jr.: “Anak, humihina na ang pandinig ko, tumatanda na yata ako  (Son, I’ve become hard of hearing. I must be getting old).”

And yet she constantly refused to wear a hearing aid, just as she decidedly warned her children against taking her to the hospital.

“Take me to the hospital and I will not come back home alive,” she would tell them.

Well, after all, except for her advanced age, she wasn’t sick and was not taking any medications aside from vitamins.

With no diet restrictions, she regularly feasted on a smorgasbord of lechon, mayonnaise, chicharon, chips, chocolates and pastries.

Not counting childbirth, Mommy Med had never been hospitalized. Despite the years and even close to her deathbed, she insisted on staying in the room she had shared with Daddy Soc in the Rodrigo compound in New Manila for some six decades until his demise in November 1998.

Twenty years later, on Monday last week, Mommy Med finally joined Daddy Soc.

Sensitive till the end

Though not stricken with any affliction, Mommy Med’s condition suddenly took a turn for the worse on Saturday, and the family held vigil around her until 2 a.m. on Monday.

When the seeming turbulence in her breathing subsided, we all decided to go home to sleep and left her with two nurses, loyal cousin Medy, and several attendants.

Just past 5 a.m., we were awakened by the announcement that Mommy Med was gone. We figured she may have wanted to spare us further exhaustion and the pain of seeing her listless and in pain.

To her death, she was sensitive to the discomfort of others. We gathered around her in prayer, while waiting for the ambulance and representatives of the funeral home.

Mommy Med was interred on Saturday at the town cemetery of Bulacan, Bulacan, near the neighborhood where she and Daddy Soc had been neighbors and childhood sweethearts.

She is survived by children Remedios “Ditas” Sevilla, who is married to former Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Oscar Sevilla; lawyer Francisco “King” Jr., married to the late Olga Syyap and, four years ago, to this writer; Josefina “Pempe” Rodrigo, servant leader of the Catholic Ministry Foundation, Wonderful Streams of Living Waters; Melecio (Milo), councilor of Barangay Mariana in New Manila; and Ramon “Boogie,” a lawyer and former fiscal who is married to the former Geegee Onate.

In 2004, Mommy Med lost her youngest daughter, Veronica (“Bing”) to cancer.

But Mommy Med’s avowed greatest treasures were her 27 grandchildren, 47 great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren.

To our eternal shame, she could remember all their names and birthdays and would remind us when the occasion drew near.

‘Forgive, understand’

Of course, she also remembered who owed her money, even if their loans were often written off with much sympathy and understanding. Of those who took advantage of her generosity, she only had words of compassion.

“Let us forgive and try to understand them. We could have been in their shoes,” she would say.

It was perhaps this rare generosity that caused her to belabor for months how she would fairly and equitably distribute the P100,000 gift that the city government gives to its centenarians.

We never ceased to wonder, too, at how she managed to always keep wads of bills in various denominations by her bed.

Each time any family member, regardless of age, would greet and kiss her, she would offer a bill with the request to pass it on to the poor, as she was too old to go out and do so herself.

Once, a gradeschooler apo candidly responded: “Lola, I have no job — so I am poor. Can I keep the money?” Our jaws dropped.

Solicitous to a fault

Every Christmas, she continued with her pa-pila (queue) for cash and gifts to the marginalized from her hometown, as well as erstwhile employees and their dependents.

The queue extended from the house foyer to her terrace, all the way out to the street.

Every gift-giving session, a long row of relatives of Adeling would dominate the line.

Mommy’s son, Milo, our unofficial barker, would flamboyantly announce: Asawa ni Adeling; anak ni Adeling; biyenan ni Adeling, hipag ni Adeling, kapitbahay ni Adeling, and so on. (Adeling’s husband, child, in-law, neighbor, etc).

One time, Mommy Med asked: “Sino ba si Adeling? Nasaan ba si Adeling?  (And who is Adeling? Where is Adeling?”)

Mommy Med was solicitous to a fault. Once she reprimanded Milo for staying up late. “Baka ka magkasakit, (You might get sick),”  she admonished him. Scratching his head, Milo reminded her: “Mommy, I’m already 75 years old. I’m too old to be scolded.”

Calm, equanimous

Family members occasionally kept adverse news from Mommy Med to spare her unnecessary stress and preoccupation. When her family’s health problems and negative developments were finally divulged to her, she took the information with characteristic calm and equanimity, advising us to accept God’s will and pray for those who needed prayers more than we do.

“A woman who has survived several wars and epidemics, temporal and material upheavals, the loss of parents, siblings, a husband and most painfully, a daughter, who according to the natural cycle of life, should have outlived her, will not be shaken and scathed by even the most outrageous truths,” my husband King said of his decision to be completely open to her.

Last year, King asked Mommy if her visions of deceased loved ones included Daddy Soc. She said, “Yes, once. And he said to me: “Ang bagal mo naman  (What’s taking you so long?).”

Pardon our unleashed telenovela mode, but we imagine Daddy Soc leading Mommy Med by the hand to that final dwelling place that awaited them for 20 years, never to part again. For this couple, forever beckons.