Remedios T. Romualdez - Marriage

Marriage

Remedios Trinidad settled with her husband and five stepchildren. She occupied the house Vicente Orestes built two years ago, also on General Solano street, for his then wife, the Moorish-looking mestiza Juanita Acereda of Barrio Tanghas, Tolosa, Leyte (she died before the house was finished and was interred in San Miguel Pro-Cathedral). Calle General Solano was a bustling street in San Miguel District a few yards away from Malacañan Palace (home of the Philippine presidents and Philippine Governors-General) and the San Miguel Pro Cathedral. This street was once lined with Delonix Regia or Royal Poinciana trees. In this gentrified neighborhood lived a number of important families such as the heirs of Trinidad Zobel, Angela Olgado Zobel (mother of Enrique Zobel), Reyeses and Bustamantes, et al. Part of the Malacañan Palace gardens used to be owned by Daniel Romualdez Sr. of Pandacan, her eventual father-in-law. (This land was sold in the 1900s to pay for the schooling of Miguel Romualdez, Vicente Orestes Romualdez, and Norberto Romualdez at the Ateneo de Manila which was located in Intramuros before the war).

Her marriage was marked with heartaches from her stephchildren, a passive husband, numerous pregnancies, and much sacrifice to keep her husband's name in high repute.

Lourdes, the strong-willed daughter of Vicente Orestes, headed the children in rebelling against Meding. They treated her coldly. Arguments echoed from the Romualdez house especially when Lourdes insisted that the life size paintings of her mother's image not be moved in any way. Francisco and Vicente Jr followed suit. Meding spoke to her husband privately but he always sided with Lourdes.

With her husband being so strict with his brood of girls, Victoria (later a lawyer) suffered a nervous breakdown and Dulce (later Sister Bellarmine Romualdez, head of the Holy Ghost College, now known as the School of the Holy Spirit) was intimately shy. Meding, ever kind and mindful of her stepchildren's well being, brought them to Malolos and Baliuag to see the fiestas and meet young men and women their age.

She sought help from Beatriz, Norberto's second wife (Norberto's deceased first wife was Beatriz's cousin). Beatriz advised Meding to talk it over with Orestes. The latter was a boheme and cared little for the tempers flaring in his house. During nights to the zarzuelas and movies, he brought his daughters along and left Meding in the house. She scrubbed the floors, cleaned the aparadores, counted the sheets, mended the clothes, and kept the entire house in good order similar to how she was trained at the Asilo. Instead of saying thank you, Lourdes and the rest regarded her hardwork as nothing more than being working class. They refused to be seen with Imelda and Benjamin even when all of them went to the same school so now the maid had to walk Remedios's children separately.

She went back to the nuns of the Looban Convent but there is not much that they could do. They said it was part of the sacrifices of marriage. Whatever Meding would do, they warned, she must keep the good Romualdez name intact.

Remedios's only causes for joy were the coming of her children: Imelda, Benjamin, Alita, Alfredo, Armando and Concepcion "Conchita." She made sure that she held happy thoughts, cooked her excellent galantina and embutido and frequented the churches and relatives around the city (to avoid confrontations with Lourdes). On practically all of these trips she brought her eldest Imelda, the most beautiful and gregarious of her offspring. (She would heat iron and curl her tressles and doll her up). Her love for her children kept her alive. She made sure she exuded a positive aura so that her children would not embibe the pains in her heart, so that they would come out healthy and strong.

Her old friend from the Asilo, Josephine, visited her once and was terribly surprised by what she saw. Society has come to know the Norberto Romualdezes and Miguel Romualdezes to be very wealthy and distinguished families. It was such an opposite that the youngest branch would have Meding cleaning house without enough househelp around her.

Her suitor, the Tinio son, came to know of her fate and stopped by General Solano. It was a doubly awkward moment as Vicente Orestes opened the door and Remedios was busy caring for her young children.

The Tinio son, now a graduate of Engineering, had come back--- still single. He was ready to marry Remedios against his family's wishes. That could not happen though, as now Remedios is married. The visit was civil, heartwarming, and very long. Vicente Orestes kept a wary eye from afar.

Her nearest friends during that time were their erstwhile male househelp Marcelo Cumpas and a young Leyte maid, Estrella Cinco, who have remained with her, without any compensation, as the finances of the Vicente Orestes Romualdezes crumbled to pieces (Estrella Cinco was one of the daughters of the encargados managing the Romualdez plantations in Leyte. A very young but impoverished girl, she was adopted by Meding whose original intent was to bring her to Manila and enroll her to one of Manila's schools while at the same time helping around in the Romualdez home. Because of the crises that fell around them, Estrella stopped school and became nanny to Meding's six toddlers. She eventually married Marcelo Cumpas, had children and returned to Tanauan, Leyte.)