You may catch her in the park just across the church on a Sunday morning. After the mass, she usually spends her time making fun of the people passing by, interrogating whoever she finds interesting whether it’s a shoeshine boy, a beggar or a crazy person, or at the least looking after the small sari-sari store owned by her friend for 40 years.
She is no con artist but I must warn you not to believe everything she says. She is very convincing, especially when she claims that the city mayor’s her ex-boyfriend. She may be exaggerating at times and until now I don’t know if she really had 5 boyfriends at a single time. Last year, she was invited by three radio stations to be part of their respective programs. She chose the one which gave her her own show that lasted for two months until she finally called it quits. Until now, they are still courting her to come back and some followers from far flung provinces keep on sending her warm messages.
I can’t blame them; she has a big heart to go with the face that could launch a thousand and one ships. She’s so beautiful, even the blind blink. And that’s not to make fun of her blind friends whom upon hearing her voice look like a kid who just found a wallet and later on finds out its empty. She has a dozen of them, probably more. If you see a beautiful, well dressed woman in stilettos singing beside a blind beggar playing a lute at an overpass bridge or next to a pedestrian lane, that’s her. Don’t be surprised if you see them head to the nearest cinema after.
Did I say she has an exceptional singing voice? If talent shows came earlier then American Idol would have had a night dedicated to her. And I’m not exaggerating. If only she could dance well, then probably she’s Madonna. But her flexibility is just limited to teaching the senior citizens TaI Chi. When she took over the group started by her gay friend 2years ago, there were only about 30 of them. After 2 months, it has grown to 180. I don’t know how she managed that number of old people, all looking up to her, even going to the venue as early as 11pm when the exercise starts at 5:30 the next day. And what’s more intriguing is she has the memory of an elephant. She knows each one of them, not to mention their children, grandchildren and their pets. She listens to them, she cries with them and she loves each one of them.
She has a soft spot for the unfortunate, the old people and young kids. She adopted a half-Japanese girl who today occasionally visits to tell her how happy her life was with us. Not to mention another Japanese boy and four indigent little girls who grew up calling her mommy.
Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday, and I don’t know how many will be there to celebrate it with her. Too bad I can’t make it, she really got me worked up when she said she’s going to wear a gown. I just can’t imagine her looking like a queen amidst a group of beggars, the blind, the senior citizens, old neighbors back at the slum area, her friends and her very big family. I just love my mom!
Happy 50th birthday Liboria McCormick!
