Conchita was literally beatified when she crossed rivers and seas and lumbered through concrete jungles and rice paddies to convert a tragedy into a romantic fairy tale. It was, however, not selfless maternal love as we originally suspected that fuelled her determination to amend the blunder committed by her son against the innocent Ildefonsa.
The heroic stunt was really all about her. Conchita went through a high-profile rejection too and while her ordeal ended "happily" as well, the harrowing experience haunted her for life. Conchita's own wedding you see nearly did not happen even if she was already heavy with child.
But why did Conchita make the sweet and unsuspecting Ildefonsa suffer? Actually, Conchita had nothing against Ildefonsa in particular although even before she had met her in person, Conchita was already scheming to give her, or any bride or Rico's for that matter, a hard time.
When Rico explained the fiasco in Chicago to her mother, Conchita surmised Ildefonsa to be a coy and simple person, just the type that she could tyrannize for her own amusement. Conchita engineered the reunion of her son with the unwary Ildefonsa primarily because she wanted a new daughter- in-law to oppress.
Conchita was the last person to acknowledge however that her strange behaviour was an offshoot of the cruelty she suffered in the hands of her own mother-in-law. Conchita had two daughters-inlaw before Ildefonsa, the wives of Rico's two elder brothers. But Leonor (Manuel's wife) and Josephine (Andy's) were very strong women who never succumbed to Conchita's incessant attempts to intimidate. Both daughters-in-law were aware that Conchita's animosity was baseless. They both perceived a determination to be cruel for its own sake for as far as they were concerned there were no obvious reasons for Conchita to resent them. In the end they simply ignored her bizarre behaviour and attributed it to senility.
Leonor was a school teacher and she handled Conchita's unpleasant behaviour as if she were a hopelessly naughty student at school. Josephine, on the other hand, was adept at handling all sorts of time wasters at her clerical job at the local municipal hall so that Conchita's unsubstantiated tantrums were a minor irritant compared to her daily routine at work.
Leonor and Josephine did not have to work actually, because Manuel and Andy were doing well in Saudi Arabia and earned more than enough for their needs and there was also the grocery store to help manage and run. But as soon as their children were old enough to leave with a baby sitter, the girls rushed back to their old jobs just to avoid being with Conchita either at home or at the grocery store. The three women jointly owned the grocery store and had to meet regularly to talk about the details of running it, but other than that, Leonor and Josephine did everything to avoid being with Conchita for more than ten minutes.
Conchita's behaviour to her two grandchildren was the exact opposite. She absolutely adored them. Not only did Conchita shower Leonor's two-year-old daughter Len-Len with beautiful dresses and pamper Josephine's one-year-old son Andy Junior with the latest toys, she also personally looked after them when their mothers were at work. Conchita even paid for the two baby sitters who minded the two kids when her attention was required at the grocery store where they also have two hired assistants.
To understand fully Conchita's aversion to daughter-in-laws, let us dig deeper into her past.
Conchita was born in small village we shall call San Pedro (not it's real name) in the island of Mactan, when this sub-province of burgeoning Cebu was accessible only via small motorboats.
There was only one weekly trip to Cebu City from San Pedro. This was every Friday afternoon at four when the villagers would literally fight for the limited number of spaces left after the public school teachers from Cebu have taken their "reserved" seats. The same group of teachers would come back on the return trip every Monday morning at six to resume teaching at the only school in the village. The teachers were given priority to the boat because in the past they often used it as a convenient excuse for missing work for a whole week until the local principal wised up and made a deal with the boat operator.
Only one other passenger was assured a space in this weekend trip to Cebu City, a short, fat and ugly woman called Concha.
What a cruel way to describe a woman, you might say. But you noticed how short Concha was because she wore the loudest print in the wildest colours. You noticed how fat she was because she wore the shortest skirt and the lowest neckline. You noticed how ugly she was because she highlighted her Neanderthal features with cheap garish make up.
San Pedro, for some reason, didn't have a village idiot but it had Concha.
To be continued
