Giselle@52: Five Decades Worth

So exactly 50 years ago, it got burned into my consciousness that I had a “twin” sister. This was because my earliest memories as a child always had her by my side. It was only much later that I would find out we were actually born one year apart and she was my younger sister, Giselle Trixie.

As babies, she was a lot bigger and chubbier in contrast to my rather skinny built, so our sizes didn’t much differ to distinguish our ages. But I was darker in complexion compared to her fair skin –  a testament to the white, plump siopaos Mama craved for during her pregnancy. I guess her beautiful skin can also be attributed to the healthy snacks she used to get fed as a baby. Her Nanay Soling fed her fresh fruit to munch on – washed tomatoes and calamansi without the seeds. That penchant for tomatoes once got us into trouble when she plucked an unripened tomato from one of our Lola Piling’s plants in the compound and she saw us.

One thing that characterized her as a baby was her rather sparse hair; they used to joke she only had 3 hairs on her head and one is even crooked or broken. Eventually, her faintly brownish hair would grow out, and which she would proudly wear “tower-power” style in the 80s.

Meanwhile, we would always be dressed alike as kids – me in blue, and she, in red; I would get Royal Tru-Orange while she got Coke; I would have Chiz Curls while she had Chippy. We each had “yayas” – but it was always more like “sharing” everything all the time.

As we grew older, I started getting the attention from boys and young males (which I hated), and she said she envied that. “Buti pa si Ate, napapansin…” was what she would sadly say, to which I would retort, “Ngek, gusto mo yung mga pito at sitsit ng mga tricycle driver o security guard? Sige, sa iyo na lang nga…” At that time, she didn’t consider herself pretty. And it didn’t help that Manong Snokum always criticized her way of dressing as “baduy“. She was monochromed after all, having grown up with the color red as her standard hue. 

Secretly, she was practicing her smile in the mirror. She perfected that smile after many years of trying closed mouth, tight-lipped grins vs. open-mouthed, teeth-showing smiles. She then realized, it was all in the eyes, and she did have nice, twinkly eyes.

Not many remember it, but she stuttered when she was a kid. Fortunately, she outgrew it when she started school. But she wasn’t a great student early on. Having entered into school too early (she was only three actually, so my parents had to coach her to say her birthday was “June 3” instead of the actual August 3^rd), she was still too playful. Her attention span was so short and she would get easily distracted. Her yaya, ‘Nang Fe” didn’t pressure her and was very patient with her antics. One time in nursery school, she raised her hand and the teacher thought she wanted to be excused to go to the bathroom. But she folded her hands together into a “T” and told her teacher she wanted a “timeout” so she could go out to the playground. To be fair, it was her yaya who called her outside because she wanted to show her a “kumao”, that Zorro-costumed legendary creature thought to kidnap young children to use their blood on bridges. Since then, Giselle had a penchant for childhood horror stories like that.

She had to be tutored in her early elementary years, and one time, she told our Mom not to bother anymore with getting a teacher to tutor her for her exams. “Mama, regaluhan na lang natin si Teacher…”, was her remark. Such was her attitude, she never wanted to be a bother to anyone really. But while she appeared not to take her studies seriously, suddenly in Grade 5, she took an interest in Science class and started to excel. She said she just loved her teacher, Ms. Constancia and her subject on the solar system to explain her surprising academic turn-around. We began noticing that while she was studying, she was doing it in front of the television while watching Remington Steele, Dynasty or the Colby’s. One time, she was even chosen to represent the school in a Quiz B competition with other institutions. Then in high school, she didn’t just continue to do well, she actually excelled in science and math! Eventually, she became a consistent Top 10 in her class. And when she became an honor student for her batch, we were shocked because her TV-studying habits hadn’t changed. Soon, she applied to be a Citizens Army Training (CAT) officer under the COCC program and finished by being designated as Company B Commander, a high rank second only to the highest-ranked battalion commander leading the whole batch.

To tell you the truth, she was actually the one who first got into writing. She once got an old notebook and began writing a novelette using one her many pseudonyms like “Catherine Ann Torres” or “Erika Von Amherst”. She then saw Manong Snokum’s architectural digests and began sketching model houses which I soon picked up too. She would soon give them up, quickly losing interest, and I would end up cultivating those hobbies instead. As a family, we all read a lot, spending our summers reading various materials from our extensive home library filled with encyclopedias, college and high school textbooks, and various pocketbooks. Those times would serve us well in later years, especially during our UPLos Banos dorm days and when she was based in Jeddah as a Saudia Flight Attendant. Books became a constant companion for her, and I think, like me, she never did lose her love of books until now. 

There was no doubt she would follow me into UP Los Banos for college after high school. She even spent half her summer prior to college staying with me at my dorm because I was being hounded by ghosts in my room. (Of course, she would have her own ghostly tales to talk about later – remember those pairs of bakya trailing in the bathroom?) Inevitably, she would also join Sigma Delta Phi Sorority of which I was already a member. And then, she would suddenly become a campus figure we never expected her to be. She would catch the eye of a heartthrob professor and become his girlfriend, thus becoming the envy of many university gals. Besides a sorority, she joined an academic organization where she was also quite popular. In between, she acted in a sorority play, appearing as a Japayuki in “Pitik-Bulag sa Buwan ng Pebrero” and appeared in a class production of a feminist play as a battered pregnant woman. Yes, that’s a little known fact about her –she was a theater actress at one time in her life!

She always knew how to have fun and would explore nearby provinces with her friends; she attended fiestas in in Quezon and Laguna, even town-hopped in Batangas from Taal to Cuenca to Bauan. This was the 80s and she got curious about the Marian apparitions in Lipa, where she stepped on a thumbtack and injured her foot. (That seemingly “minor” injury would come back to haunt her years later when the foot tissue hardened and needed to be excised.) Even on schooldays on-campus, I never really know where she is, but she eventually comes back to the dorm so we can have our meals together. If she goes outside of Los Banos within the week, as long as she comes back before we would go back home to Manila Friday night or Saturday morning, that would be fine and I don’t worry about her much. In the age where there were no cellphones or even beepers yet, tacking small notes on your dorm cabinet door to let your roommates know where you are, were enough. But those college days were one of the happiest times of our lives!

After I graduated and started working, our youngest sister would join her in UP Los Banos as she finished her senior year. But unfortunately, she would never complete her thesis having abruptly applied to be a flight attendant with Saudia airlines upon Manong Snokum’s prodding. That would be scary times for her being only 20 years old and travelling abroad for the first time to continue her training. But Saudia would open a whole new chapter for her and would be one of the defining moments of her life. For almost three decades, she would fly around the world, seeing exciting places and meeting interesting people. She would even learn how to cook exotic cuisine. Besides the frequent Middle East and Africa trips, she would visit Europe and the USA a couple of times, and make it a point not to miss the museums and standard tourist traps. She was truly in her element as a stewardess and she thoroughly enjoyed herself in her work. She also managed to take Mama around South East Asia a few times, fulfilling her parental duty and ensuring Mama enjoys the benefit of having a stewardess daughter. Through it all, her motivation was for the family, and even if she had a few passionate romances of her own, she always prioritized her family, especially her nephews and nieces.

I believe she did the best that she could always – for herself and the family. She has few regrets she said, and that would be understandable considering the exciting life she lived as a flight attendant. I loved hearing her stories from each trip –  drama and tragedy from OFWs returning home, paranormal stories from haunted hotels they stayed in, action-thrillers from their encounters with rude foreigners, etc. She may not know it, but some of her accounts on OFWs fed into my work for trafficked women and migrant workers, and were useful information.

Still, I would have loved to see her pursue her first loves – like marine biology and scuba diving. Even in her later years, maybe she could still try snorkeling or free-diving. I bet these water-sports would be easy on her injured back and knees that have been bothering her lately.

I am writing about her now in honor of her 52^nd birthday…something I wanted to gift her with when she turned 50 during the COVID lockdown a few years ago. I want her to remember fond memories of her youth, and the life I saw her live. Maybe she would have her own version of remembrances that would bring smiles to her face. Maybe it’s the time to come full-circle to some things and cherish all that life has brought us.