Of floods and men

The rains poured and as I was driving to work that Saturday, I thought I was back home driving through tire high waters after missing out on a right turn through the mall's first entrance. It was a non stop rain which flooded many main streets and of course, Des Plaines where son JB kept watch as flood waters rose with the river.

He sent pictures of his street and back yard. Flooding in the basement was nil from floor upwards but the insidious water came through the basement windows causing a waterfall down his walls. Lynn and JB had fun sand bagging the windows . A few years back, when faced with the first flood threat where all his in-laws were calling him asking if they were OK or if they needed help, he asked me why he wasn't panicking like everyone else, just like this time. That's because back home at 527 mariano marcos in San Juan (once 159 Ortega St,) floods came and went at least 3 times a year in our one story house. As far back as I can remember, floods were common place. We were lucky if it was a Yoling type typhoon where strong winds gusted ( I remember the eerie yellow light during a calm moment when we were in the eye of the typhoon and the following blast as it moved away) rather than the Sening typhoon where mom woke up to go bathroom and stepped into knee deep waters. Sometimes, we were able to put our beds on wooden horses, but most of the time, we had to dry out moldy mildewed beds the next sunny day. Patty and I would swim to the gate and watch bancas and motor boats ply the streets. When the kids were born, the riverside became a bit murkier and darker so we had to palm them off to friends up the street. In our unassuming quiet neighborhood street,big name people lived like the Robert Ocas, Ibazetas, and finally up the street, the official residence of Ferdinand Marcos before he moved to malacanang palace where the joke was that when the Marcos pool overflowed, we'd get flooded.
A few weeks before JB, Bambi and Migay flew over to join us, the house flooded and a picture was taken of that particular time. Which is why JB, used to all the flooding, never panicked or felt any fear or concern. Was proud of Lynn enjoying wading through the cleaner flood waters of their street. People were invited into their little house to wait for tow trucks as they floundered in the unsuspecting depths of the street rivers.
I told JB that I couldn't understand why people were so upset that first big Des Plaines flood in the late 80s, when I had just come from a land of floods oh oops, heaters, washers, dryers, fully loaded basements, duh... So a bit more sympathy there, maridel.
Anyway, until the next Chicago monsoon, here's to floods and men.

Grace under Fire, with apologies to Liz.

In the haze of grief, where surreality overlaps reality, losing mom, Gloria Y.Nichols, to a short bout of pneumonia, and figuring out where to come up with an up front fee of 8 grand for one night of wake, daughter in law Dawn came up with a few names for crematory services.
So we sat down with Liz, a smartly dressed, soft spoken woman who runs a cremation service. As she explained what the $650 fee entailed, (as in pick up the body, bring to crematorium, return the ashes with 2 death certificates), my sister Patricia and I asked a few more questions and then decided to look no further.

With her patience and ability to be emphatetic, Liz gave us a bright spot in an otherwise really depressing duty. At the back of our minds, mom had a first class, top of the line funeral plan with all the trimmings from a premier funeral home in the Philippines. And here, we end up with a bare bones package, pardon the pun.

But here are snippets of why we were comfortable with Liz.

Can we dress her up in her favorite color (lavender/purple) dress? Sure, and she agreed to pick the dress up from us. No make up, no embalming. After all, it's cremation, right?

A day later, oh, by the way, my cousin cannot make it to the cremation service, can we come over so he can see mom? And Liz patiently waited for us (3 hours late) as we comfortably lost our way and drove further west than east. Typical of GYN, in her heyday. We used to go to wakes and funerals, as far away as Ilocos Sur at night where a giant bat like figure followed us during our midnight drive to a place I am sure only had a few homes with electricity, and others around towns where we had no names of either deceased, family or place but still found it. So here's to mom again, even in death are we following the principles of her adventures in attending wakes and funerals. It actually made us laugh.

And, Liz did a great job with mom's remains. She looked even better than when we last saw her at the hospital. Like she was sleeping, no artifice, and beautiful in her lavender outfit, made for her by a society dressmaker Inang Paras, one of the women she played mah-jong with and who'd gone ahead of her. See mom? You outlived them all.

Oh by the way, can we have her cremated next week instead? After Labor Day? So our kids can come and say their good byes and we can get a priest to do the final blessings? Again, she said sure. Are we staying the entire time? It may cost a bit. Nope, just us traipsing to a place 2 hours away from our regular route and seeing GYN one last time.

It was almost a party being in a huge warehouse where two ovens (one fired up for GYN) and they brought mom out, a bit sunken in the eyes but otherwise, still as beautiful that not one of the kids, or Mercy or her kids blanched. I think the visiting Pinoy priest was a bit weirded out. We listened to the prayers, talked around mom as if she were only sleeping, I put sugar flowers on her hands instead of getting fresh, after all, she started the hand made sugar flower industry years ago where it is now a common place home industry. Again, a pioneer.

So Liz patiently waited for us. Being there was the formal acknowledgement of the body and the go signal for cremation.

Oh, and can you wait till Saturday? Patty wasn't ready to bring mom home. As usual. And so GYN , like in life, also in death, went around town and travelled to places here and there on the back of Liz' van, so typical of her itchy wandering feet, which is what we all have, thanks to her. Poor Liz, even if she were the msot professional of professionals, I am sure we really took the cake in some of the things she did for us, as we thanked her profusely for taking mom for a ride.

This piece, as garbled as it is, is to thank Liz and acknowledge her patience and service for GYNichols and her dysfunctional family. Thanks Liz for being the way you are. (How did you get into this business? My mom was a funeral director. Bingo!)

On a quieter note, thank goodness for dedicated people Like Liz and her Cremations by Grace Company. A life saver for those who cannot afford the wakes and funeral services. And a bonus to have someone like her, patient, understanding, and thorough.
Patient above all. Thanks again Liz for taking care of mom.

Birthday Blues

It's raining. Store's really slow, scares me.
I should be hyped turning the big 55, but, two weeks ago, I lost my mom.
Mornings are the hardest, when I realize I don't need to rush to work because I don't have to run to the nursing home and say I love you to mom. Sigh.

I'll wait for Thursday night dinner to get the kids and grandkids over, have a paella and hopefully, either crispy pata and lechon kawali cholesterol high dinner.
Throw in some binagoongan pork or veggies to the mix and maybe a pancit or noodles the grandkids will eat.

Still there's a lot to be thankful for, being alive at 55 because a woman, ahead of her time, chose to have me, braving scandalous stares, outrage and keeping the courage to have what she wanted, children! Even if it meant being the scarlet woman of a dashing handsome young and ambitious teacher turned politician.

Gloria Y.Nichols (2)

These next few days will be trying times for my family as we are set to work on mom's physical remains.
But life goes on and I have a wedding cake to make for the granddaughter or a friend of hers. Interestingly, GYN made the wedding cake of her daughter while I am making the wedding cake of her grand-daughter.
Way back when wedding cakes were mom's choice of canvas, creating cakes with themes, following bridal gown patterns and re-creating them in cake, the traditional way of sharing the cake was putting them in a mini cake box. GYN did not leave this plain.Pieces of freshly baked Rolling Pin famous pound cake were carefully sliced, and double wrapped in glassine and parchment. The box was further personalized with tiny hand-made royal icing flowers with tulle & ribbons of the box matching the bridal party theme. These were then layered in outer rings surrounding the main cake. The image one sees is a frothy gossamer image of confection.
But GYN started getting ideas as usual. She then tapped her friend in our little town of San Juan who had a ceramic factory and ordered ceramic swans for another society wedding. Again with the Pound cake, tulle, ribbons and tiny flowers, this made waves. Clayburn Ceramics owner Mrs. Aranaz and GYn then moved on to making a ceramic dish with hand painted flowers and names of the bride and groom. Thus boomed the new trend in wedding give-aways.Pirate Chests, typewriter typeset balls, candy dishes, their ideas were endless.
GYN went on to add capiz jewelry boxes, tampipis, wicker baskets. Each time one new item debuted, other bakeries followed and copied.
Today, the list is endless as to the choices of wedding give-aways. Brides and planners come out with seemingly unique ideas of quaintness. Bakeries have found alternative sources for the ceramics.
But who started it? Where did this boldness come from? Gloria Y.Nichols, of course.
And the once simple pull-away ribbons with the wedding version of a chinese fortune cookie saying also went haute when GYN slipped a one carat diamond solitaire from the groom's mother's jewelry store into one of the pull-out ribbons. The next wedding had one each solitaire of the year's birthstones plus a bigger carat diamond. I heard even the men folk lined up to pull the ribbons. Our Rolling Pin staff were sweating bullets delivering the cake because the jewelry cost more than the cake. I do have pictures and names of the society weddings from newspaper clippings of Manila's Society pages where the news columnists waxed poetic about each of mom's creations. As these are getting brittle and yellowed with page, it is now my goal to scan and save these and hopefully share them with all. Maybe some of the couples will remember GYN this way.

Gloria Y. Nichols part 1

How does one start when writing about a woman who's life was filled with many interesting chapters through the years, facets so varied that so many lives have been touched in some way or another, enriching them with gems of wisdom GYN loved to share?

We start by working backwards. I would like to chronicle and share her life one decade at a time. If you have met GYN anytime this past decade, you would have met a small, frail looking, white haired (sometimes hennaed brown) woman with wide eyes, almost unwrinkled skin.

Yesterday,Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 5:05pm CST, she passed away peacefully after a short struggle with pneumonia. Patricia and I, along with number one grandson Anamite (Noel Angelo), Kylie (her granddaughter she left Manila for) Mite's wife Dawn, grandneice Lita Rebodos, watched as she fought the ventilator mask which at her frailness seemed to be a fear instead of an aid to keep her breathing. The decision to change to care, comfort and dignity came when no improvement showed with the treatments made as the pneumonia was far too rabid and invaded her whole lung system. She would not have wanted to be intubated and be a "living vegetable".

In the surreality of it all, it has been her teachings and being exposed to her quirky thoughts as we were growing up that helped me and Patty deal with her final moments. All the afterlife, near death and death bed lore and readings and paranormal genre that she shared with us, helped us deal with this particular moment.
That she was hanging on, I was driving back from work with Kylie, and was thinking"who is holding on to her?" and at that moment, Patty called me frantically asking to give the go signal to change from ventilator to the oxygen thingy and that mom was having an episode struggling and asking "Help me, I don;t know what to do!" and then said Kylie's name. KYLIE! I turned to my daughter and realized that it was baby Kylie who did not want to let go, more strongly than me, as I just wanted some more time to think. But Kylie was adamant and she was holding on to her Lola in her heart and mind. Through tears and chiding, I kept telling her, say good bye Kylie, look at her, she wants to go! I also wanted to wait for the evening when the other "apos" Bambi, JB and Migay got there to make this change but mom's struggles with the mask were too painful to watch. Within 10 minutes of the change from mask to regular oxygen, after readings of Psalm 23 both by Dawn and Lita, and with Kylie reluctantly letting go, mom sneezed twice and we all chorused "Bless You!" each time, she looked around and then was gone, asleep, smooth faced, at peace. Anamite was choking as he read Be Not Afraid.

Gone was this frail looking but actually, strong woman with a mighty interesting and colorful life.
A woman who raised two kids in an unorthodox way, raised 5 grandkids as if they were hers, and "lambinged" and held 5 great-grandkids with pride and love.
A woman who was ahead of her time when she was trend setting cakes, food and lifestyle in the Philippines.
She came with nothing and left with nothing but touched many lives with a richness of gems of wisdom, lifestyle, thought forms and philosophies.
Gloria Yandoc Galang Nichols, February 25, 1917 to August 25, 2008.

Sauces, Mixes, Marinades

I am a fan of sauces, mixes, marinades, packaged rice. OK, lets qualify, the ones you have to cook like Vigo, Near East, Louisiana Purchase and some others. Not the rice a roni or uncle ben although they should be good but too american for my taste.
But I tweak the instructions by adding regular jasmine rice and cooking these in the rice cooker, oh, and no butter, shudder and cringe especially when grand daughter Lynn uses "I can't believe its not butter" stuff with dried dill, yeccch.

Barbecue sauces, marinades you name it and I may have it in my pantry. Right now, I just raided a food show and have Iron Chef, Jack Daniels, Sweet baby Ray, Open Pit, Kraft and whatever is on sale, preferably under a dollar. And again, tweak with soy sauce, banana ketchup lea and perrins or whatever I can grab, garlic, paprika, turmeric, lemon to name a few.
Of the Philippine mixes, I think Mama Sita rules. Not because I knew her personally, and have known her daughter when they first started Marigold in a small facility In San Juan, but because through the years, they have really come up with an awesome product line that I am never without. There are other companies but sooo pale in comparison. The only one I have along with mama Sita is the Knorr tamarind sinigang mix. I tried others, but really, quality and taste wise, Mama Sita and Knorr rule.
I recently started with Lee Kum Kee's new line of sauces and I still have to get it right but they really are good. I try odd companies for the Bulgogi marinades. Can't think of one that jumps out.
I must be a snob too for there are so much more out there but I don;t use them because they sniff too commercially for me, but I will use Goya's sofrito and adobo seasonings over Preferida et al.
No matter what it is, by the time I use these, they would have undergone a lot of tweaking as I never follow the recipes, which makes them mine!
Do you want recipes? Coming soon!

wizard or vampire?

I am a Harry Potter maniac, admitting to reading and re-reading, watching and re-watching the movies. But I also enjoy vampire lore and have just picked up Twilight. Stephenie Meyer created her own vampire mythology so different from the known vamp rotes. It doesn't matter that I think she's a bit naive in creating a different lore but she writes really well. Albeit I wasn't too keen on reading teen-age romance which pervades the book, (duh, it's for tweens and teens) but her vamp lore kept me reading. Then there's the movie coming out and a JK Rolwingesque launch for her final book, where the heroine decides which way she is going after having a glimpse of having kids and a normal life with werewolf Jacob. So naturally the shippers. Will she or will she not end up with Edward? And if she does, oh well, for me, she better choose the vampire over the werewolf.(note: as in most of the lore, take Underworld 1 & 2, rather a vampire than werewolf for me)
Still the writing is intriguing although the teen-age angst that permeates does keep me skipping pages only to have to re-read because I missed a part.
But as a successor to HP? These are two diverse areas .Twilight will always have its following, and I browsed other vampire books only to shrug them off as none of them jumped at me the way Anne Rice's books called me, or even St. Germain, cheez I cannot remember the author's name right now. I even got the so many pages long the Historian, enjoyed it and even got chilled by the chapters.

Harry Potter is a universe unto its own. I can say accio and those around know I want something, or dementor, wingardium leviosa, reparo etc. and there are sniggers. Gone are historical and mythological allusions in my life, now there are Potter allusions and to the chagrin of even my children, they understand what I mean when I Potterspeak. Something Twilight will not be able to do as there are no new words like muggles or disapparate to use.

But my movie dates are filled. Half Blood Prince is almost here and Twilight follows soon. i am glad they got Robert Pattinson (AKA Cedric Diggory) to play Edward, he fits the bill and those die-hards who don;t think he's Edward are like those who didn't think Daniel Radcliffe was Harry. Oh well.
Me? The inner teeny bopper is alive and kicking.