Nene was 30 years old at that time, a former teacher and then a full-time housewife. Her husband, Liloy, seven years older, a Scout Ranger, World War II veteran, was then in the Air Force. It was her fifth pregnancy—all live births. She was then quite a veteran on this. The family settled in Airmen’s Village, Nichols (now Villamor) Air Base, Pasay City, Philippines. Since her husband was in the military, Nene was privileged to give birth at the V. Luna General Hospital in Quezon City. The doctor said it was her due month, and she was expected to give birth before the middle of August.
Nene was superstitious. Looking at the year 1955 calendar of that month, she was hoping that her giving birth will not fall on Friday. It must be, she wished, before or after Friday, because Friday was already an inauspicious day and what’s more, it was Friday the 13th! (^;^)
Expecting labor pains, days passed. Friday the 13th came as a day with fair weather—at first. Then all of a sudden, the sun was covered by thick cumulonimbus [thunder clouds]; and Nene, in dismay, had labor pains! She was rushed to the hospital. Lying in bed in the delivery room, she was attended by a midwife. At 3:35 in the afternoon, a huge flash of lightning “scraped” the sky and immediately followed by a deafening roar of thunder—the loudest she has ever heard in her life. She was so startled by that sudden “big bang”, it induced the expulsion of the baby from her womb, who just popped out of her. Luckily, the midwife caught hold of the baby. The newborn cried loudly.
There was power disruption due to the loud explosion in the sky. The room was dark. When the lights came out, Nene saw that the midwife, with the baby in her hands was spattered with blood and other fluids. But the baby was safe and healthy. Later, Nene was so grateful to her that she was just right there blocking the newborn’s fall. Or else, the baby would have just gone straight to the cemented floor and hurt, or whatever serious thing might have happened. It was a boy.
Due to the unusual manner of the child’s birth, the attending doctor foresees that the boy will turn out to be a tarantado [bad boy]. So he cautioned the mother. Eventually, as the baby grows, there was a peculiar growth of hair extending the hairline down at the back of the boy’s head to the neck, people call buntot [tail], and they would tease him: “The boy with a devil’s tail.”
This is my story. Nene was my Mom, and I was the baby. My parents gave me the name HERSCHIL or HERSCHEL—a mixture of HERMOGENA, my mom + CIRILO, my dad. Mom said they also got my name from the Bible, but I presume they got it from a science book. Friedrich Wilhelm HERSCHEL was a German astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus, a planet of the “underworld”. A Visayan godmother of mine styled me “BUBOT”, which means “immature” or “unripe”. It became my nickname.
By Herschel “Bubot” Tolentino [a.k.a. Bala Krsna das]
FOUNDER: Bio Sparks – Alternative Rock “Underground” Band
(Since 1984)
