More Mario memories

Indulge me, please, as this is the way I manage my grief over the loss of writer-patriot Mario Ignacio Miclat. I met him and his family a few years after they returned to the country following 15 years of political exile in China. I was assigned to write about him for The Sunday Times Magazine, supplement of the then Gokongwei-owned The Manila Times. I don't have a copy anymore of my article, but I do recall the magazine cover of that issue--two photographs of Chinese landscape and architecture taken by Mario himself. I vaguely remember the article's title as "Bayan-bayanan sa Beijing." What struck me upon visiting their first home, a condo unit at BLISS Pag-asa in Quezon City, was how orderly and clean it was. Fast forward to the time they moved to another condo on Quezon Ave., QC. I entered the hallway and just perfunctorily left my walking cane on a corner. Then Mario showed up and in a strict and annoyed tone wondered aloud what the cane was doing on its spot. I realized that he was like my husband Rolly Fernandez in seeing to it there's a place for everything and everything's in its place. When the Miclats make a trip to Baguio in December during Alma Cruz Miclat's birth month, instead of us treating them to a meal, they play gracious hosts to us. In the inner group are Mario's fellow UP academics Del Tolentino and Ben Tapang and their family friend Mitos Benitez. Over Japanese dinner at Hamada at the Baguio Country Club, we used to watch Raj's antics. Talk would last until the restaurant's closing time. In this photo Mario is shown with his Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas award for his lifetime's literary output and with his family and Church Cafe confreres. From left are Mario, Alma, Raj in the arms of mother Banaue Miclat-Janssen, Fe and Pastor Sunil Stephens, Roger and Fe Mangahas and myself. Happy times--so many to look back on to lessen the sting of his departure.

The Book Lovers Day I missed

I was so taken up cooking yesterday's adobo that I forgot to add my bit about the observation of International Book Lovers Day, normally landing on the ninth of August of every year.

My husband Rolly and I share a computer so when he's busy reading and working online, I take it as my cue to read. When it's my turn to use the PC, he brings out his current reading fare--Adrian E. Cristobal's The Tragedy of the Revolution. He likes reading history, non-fiction generally.

Which suits me well because when I want a current and complicated political issue explained, he gives the historical context of why Filipinos behave the way they/we do, with lessons from the past unlearned or ignored.

My reading preference veers towards fiction and creative non-fiction or the essay. I am currently reading Yiyun Li's novel The Vagrants set in post-Mao Zedong China. I keep remembering the expatriate lives that Alma Cruz Miclat and Mario Ignacio Miclat led there as they carried out their patriotic duty to our own unfinished Revolution.

The book is a Christmas present from Delfin Tolentino, and he has been checking up on me if I've opened it. One of the fulfilling pleasures of my life is talking book talk with this retired professor.

I must confess I read slowly and in snatches. My eyes tire easily which is my cue to look after my grandchild and watch her at play.

The second photo shows my pile of books left unread or half-read--all Filipiniana that I acquired either at Mt Cloud Bookshop or at the Philippine International Readers and Writers Festival last year.

Another festival is going online this weekend, the First All-Filipino Online Bookfair Aug. 16-18. But at the rate I'm reading my pile of books at turtle's pace, I'll resist the temptation to peek at the latest titles available.