A few days ago, I had the pleasure of
spending the whole day with a client and her family on an out-of-town
trip. The family and most of the family
details and secrets are familiar to me.
Anyway, in respect to their privacy, I am
going to change the names of those concerned.
Definitely, though, they will be able to guess that they are the subject
of this blog.
Coming along on the trip was my client’s
aunt, Ellen, and her husband, Ronnie. It
was only logical that they would want to come along because I was also the one
who organized the wedding of their eldest son some years ago.
Ellen is a lovely lady who can narrate
such interesting and hilarious stories.
Being Kapangpangan of origin, she has this particular accent that makes the
telling so much more interesting and funnier.
Because we were cooped up in the car for
long hours, the stories ran from the dramatic to the hilarious.
Ellen suddenly remembered that her cousins
in Pampanga are now the current talk of the town. In the vernacular, “pinupulutan” and
“pinagpi-piyestahan” since All Saints Day last year till the past Holy
Week.
Ellen told of her aunt who died
recently. The aunt lived to her mid-eighties
and her husband was in his early nineties.
Her uncle had Alzheimer’s disease so all the conjugal affairs were
handled by Ellen’s aunt.
At one point, this aunt considered selling
all the conjugal properties. Seeking
guidance from her eldest son, she told of plans to dispose the two properties
they owned. This son, who owns a bus
liner, offered to buy the one which he can use for a garage. The mother asked for Two Million Pesos for it
and the son happily paid. The other farm
he passed up on because it was not useful for him. Nevertheless, the second farm was sold for
One Million Pesos. The old couple,
therefore, had Three Million Pesos added to their bank account.
Soon, one daughter came to borrow a few
hundred thousand pesos to be used as capital for loan sharking in the
market. This daughter made good on the
business because she was soon constructing her own house and bought a new car
with the profits from the business.
Additionally, another daughter, this one residing
in the United States, called to borrow half a million to finish her house. The daughter reasoned that it would be better
that she borrows from her parents instead of from the bank. The amount was sent.
The person handling the couple’s account
was another daughter who works in a bank.
Not to be outdone, this banker-daughter asked to borrow Eight Hundred
Thousand Pesos to capitalize a business in partnership with some others.
Then, a son had an operation and the mother
took care of his hospital bills because he works as an engineer in a government
office and therefore has no means to finance his health care.
The mother died and even before the
traditional forty days of prayers were over, the father followed. During the wake of the father, there were
already whispers among the siblings that an accounting of their parents’ estate
should be done as soon as possible. The
eldest son, who used to handle the old couple’s finances, also wondered how it
turned out that some other daughter now handled their parents’ money.
Few months without any development, the youngest
son filed a complaint with the barangay to force his siblings to account for
the estate. This complaint surprised
many in their community because the youngest son is the one who had solely
inherited their ancestral home per an earlier agreement when their parents were
still living. Among all the siblings, therefore,
the youngest son is the only one who received something tangible. To top it all, the youngest son is married to
the only daughter of a wealthy clan in the province and the couple, themselves,
reside in the wife’s ancestral house with only her mother still alive.
Upon being called by the Barangay officials
for a hearing, the banker daughter told her siblings that the business she went
into failed and she offered a title to a farm as payment. Said title was rejected by the siblings as
useless because they wanted money.
The
daughter who did well in the loan sharking business presented a list of
expenses she incurred on behalf of her parents.
The list included tomatoes, onions and other spices used in cooking
meals for the parents. This daughter
maintained that all the expenses must be offset against her debt. As an aside, Ellen laughingly narrated that
her uncle said the list was as long as the distance between their family’s farm
to the town.
To ridicule his sister’s
claims, the very rich eldest son also presented a list of expenses that he
incurred on behalf of his parents. The
list was even longer than his sister’s but it included legitimate expenses such
as salaries of caregivers that he hired for both their mother and father and
daily food expenses that also had items from Jollibee, KFC and other fast food
joints.
The daughter in the United States now
refuses to answer their long-distanced calls and ignores all pleas to pay
up.
So the search for the lost inheritance still
goes on with the intervention of local government officials. In the process, all the dirty linens are
aired and skeletons in the cupboard are rattled for public consumption!
Ellen said that all updates she gets come
from her only surviving maternal uncle, Tio Pio, who is gay. Laughingly, she quipped that when Tio Pio
dies, there will be another round of scandal that will rock their town. It appears that Tio Pio has a predilection
to collect ladies jewelry! He,
therefore, keeps a collection of choice jewelry worth a fortune plus stashes
of cash that he keeps at home. Why,
Ellen chuckled that he even has boxes of Bagong Lipunan bills! Every time Tio Pio goes on his annual US trip
to visit relatives and friends, he would ask Ellen to personally conduct him
from the province to Metro Manila. He
then brings his treasures for Ellen to safe keep.
He claims that he often missed some items or
cash when he got back from such trips.
Of course, he suspected that no other but his caregivers stole from
him. His caregivers, by the way, are all
nephews and nieces who each expect to inherit from him when he goes away for
good!
Ellen then segued to her story of the
inheritance that never was. - also involving her beloved and quirky uncle. It seems that at one time, Tio Pio called for
Ellen and showed her all his jewelries laid out on the bed. Asking her to choose the pieces that she
likes most, he said he will give these to her.
She chose a pair of earrings and matching ring and thanked her uncle for
the generous gifts.
Ellen proudly wore this heirloom and every
time she found any of her cousins scrutinizing them, she would exclaim right in
front of Tio Pio and cousins that those were given. This was so she would not later be accused of
having stolen from her uncle. Almost two years of enjoying the jewelry,
she suddenly received repeated calls from her cousins asking her to return them. According to her cousins, this was the
request of Tio Pio. Annoyed and
insulted, Ellen made the trip to the province to confront her uncle. In front of her cousins, she asked Tio Pio if
he indeed requested for the jewelry to be given back. The old man just clammed up and refused to
say anything while her cousins looked on.
She then left the matching ring and earrings with no further
comment. She deduced that her cousins
might have ganged up on and frightened Tio Pio into demand for the heirloom’s return.
Ellen, however, related that she never
changed towards her uncle. Being the
only surviving elder in their maternal clan, he received royal treatment from
her and her family. Every wish and caprice,
she grants because she reasoned that he does not have long to live so why not
just let him enjoy his remaining days.
Ellen and the rest of us expressed our
wonder at how material wealth can change a family’s basic fiber. How characters
that you have known from childhood can suddenly transform into strangers simply
because someone died and left a chunk of treasure!
Well, I said, at least for me, my kids are
lucky. They don’t get to fight over any
inheritance from moi or The Hubby. Right
now, we are only too happy to let it stay that way!
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