DELACERNA
On January 5, 2018, a special woman celebrated her 95th birthday.
Emiliana Elemento-Abellana, Mama Miling as we fondly call her, celebrated 95 years of full life, and she is a real wonder woman.
She has no illness, is not bedridden and does not take medicine or supplements for maintenance. She does not use a cane for walking or a wheelchair when going out of the house to attend an activity.
She does not have a caregiver, for she does not need one. All these years, she was alone at home with only a helper while everybody is working.
She faithfully attends the early morning Mass at the Redemptorist Church or the anticipated Saturday Mass at Espina Village where she lives with her two daughters and one son.
The other children are based in Carcar where the Abellanas come from, while one daughter is based in the U.S. She loves to go to Carcar especially during the town fiesta in November. For other trips organized by any member of the family, she always sees to it that she goes.
Mama Miling hails from Bassey, Samar and she used to be a teacher. She married Ramon Alcoseba Abellana, a sculptor, composer and dentist who was the eldest of the Abellana siblings; among whom was Martino Abellana, the painter and painting maestro of many artists in Cebu.
She stopped teaching to take care of her six children (three daughters and three sons) who gave her twelve grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, who are all wonderful persons.
Papa Ramon passed away in 2001 and since then she lived with Esperanza (Becbec), one of her elder daughters in Cebu City, and the eldest Mena who lives just beside the house.
Both daughters are very close to me since Becbec and I were classmates from kindergarten while Mena was ahead by two years, and they always invite me to their celebrations.
She is a wonder woman for she never got ill seriously. She does not have an entourage of helpers or caregivers to take care of herself and attend to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who visit her regularly or whom she visits in Carcar.
She never raised her voice even when she is angry. With her beautiful platinum white hair, a cheerful disposition, and a well fit attire for any celebration, she is always a breath of fresh air.
She never holds her laughter when there is a joke or when her great-grandchildren perform their antics. She is the epitome of a very positive person. She is teaching every woman how to age gracefully and how to take pressure positively.
The New Year’s gift to me is the hundredfold blessing of having Mama Miling as my godmother, a real godmother not a fairy godmother.
We used to be neighbors in Luanluan, Carcar which was considered the cultural hub of Carcar, the community of artists, writers, poets, musicians, cultural performers, religious and revolutionaries. Both Mama Miling and Papa Ramon were my godparents in baptism.
My mother told me that the couple offered to be my godparents and also gave me my name. Since then, I became very close to the family up to the present that I am almost a part of the family especially during Christmas.
Mama Miling’s family is very close knit, and the house is like the Abellana Center because any member of the Abellana clan always comes to Becbec’s house for a visit or anything that calls for celebration of any member of the family.
This also includes friends or colleagues of her children. The children and grandchildren gather with their homemade dishes, a legacy that Mama Miling bequeathed to them for she herself used to be a good cook.
There are many light moments when the Abellanas celebrate especially when it comes to food. You get to know how this dish was cooked and the many condiments that go with it. You are introduced to some foreign or exotic delicacies.
One of these, a kind of marketing through catchy branding happened last Friday, during the 95th birthday celebration. Carlo, one of Mama Miling’s grandsons, was gifted by a colleague who runs a suka business, a bottle of his product named Sukamod.
Sukamod in Cebuano means to stumble. This caused a reaction in reference to a local suka previously popular named Pinakurat (which means make one jolt). Becbec informed us that she has a stock of suka which she plans to call Sukarap.
This brought a louder reaction, because sukarap in Cebuano refers to the swaggering movement of a drunken person who ends up dropping on the ground. But Becbec clarified that her sukarap means sukang masarap (tasty vinegar).
Indeed a play of words. Talking about marketing of local food through catchy branding reminds me of a previous branding referring to the famous Sutukil, a popular Cebuano dish which means sugba (grill), tuwa (stew), and kilaw (cooked raw with vinegar).
In one of our heritage caravan in the early 2000, the former tourism officer of Madridejos declared to us their counterpart of Sutukil which is Gipusil (ginamos nga gipus-an ug sili) or bagoong mashed with pepper.
Gathering at the Abellana residence is always cultural, for aside from the food, paintings and sculptural works are part of the fixture and there are always stories behind them.