11 November 2014
CHERRY PIE BEYOND
THE SHADOW OF THE STORM
By Marcel Ricacho
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| Cherry Pie Picache bravely moves on... Photographed by Mark Joseph Griswold |
IT’S easy to say that
Cherry Pie Picache might have braved the storm, after all what happened to her
sprightly 75-year-old mother, Zenaida Vidor Sison, and the flurry of activities
that followed in the tragedy’s aftermath, because of her strong and steady
faith. Nevertheless, the pain still lingers in moments both random and
deliberate, and forgetting is yet beyond her in many respects, even if she
always has taken perpetual succor under the wings of the Blessed Virgin.
Indeed, it is something that has served her exceedingly well in times of trials
and great need.
However, as the ceremony master says, the show must go
on. Within the month of the family’s mourning and composing, the actress-mother
has traveled far and near to support her son’s passion and pursuit on the
tennis court. And it’s no mean feat for
a no mean player: 12-year-old Nio P. Tria is currently ranked as the country’s
number two in the 12-and-under category of the racket sport.
At any rate, their recent trip to Singapore may not have
yielded any silver or gold, but it proved to all and sundry that Nio and his
team’s storming performance could smash a well-funded and well-trained national
tennis team of the First World host. Small wonder, to think that tennis, as
many people know, is not a popular item or event in the list of the Philippine
Sports Commission.
Recently, Nio and his young
teammates played “host” to a group of world-class professional tennis players
at the Mall of Asia Arena, under the auspices of the International Premier
Tennis League, with Manila as its first stop. Also in the IPTL itinerary, among
other places, are Singapore, India and Dubai.
About a month of her mother’s passing, Cherry Pie
received an appropriate award, in recognition of her consistent charity work
for the men and women behind bars, from the Episcopal Commission on Prison
Pastoral Care (ECPPC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP). The irony of the award given at
this time is not lost on those who are aware of the stark reality of the
actress’ situation, considering that the suspect to her mother’s murder is now
in prison.
Through the guidance of her friends, the actress has
charted a different path far from the madding showbiz crowd. On certain occasions, especially during the
annual Prison Awareness Week in October, Cherry Pie finds time to visit and
bring food and other goodies as well as good will and glad tidings to the
inmates of both the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City and
the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
Now on respite from the punishing schedule of TV soap
operas, the Oxfam ambassador (“Reduce Food Waste”) and longtime Boardwalk endorser
goes back to mainstream movies, shooting her scenes for Chito Rono’s Feng Shui 2, Star Cinema’s official
entry to the 2014 Metro Manila Film Festival, and already almost through with
its principal photography. Because of
her delayed work on the Kris Aquino-Coco Martin film, Cherry Pie has decided to
go double time and shoot for successive days – well, hopefully.
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| Cherry Pie Picache with host Boy Abunda at Inside the Cinema interview. Photographed by Mark Joseph Griswold |
As of this writing, however, her “promised” days are
hardly over, just like her pained promise not to cry again whenever the thought
of her dear departed mother crosses her mind. Indeed, the slow wisdom of grief
slackens the pace of our healing, even as we grow in the process. The important thing is what Cherry Pie has
learned – and is still learning – under the circumstances that have transpired
since that fateful day.
Meanwhile, the fortysomething actress has finished one
other film earlier, tucked under her belt, and probably slated for next year’s
release, if and when the “whistle blows.” More scripts are coming her way,
“indie” or otherwise, and it seems Cherry Pie is bent on working away her
sadness and sorrow by keeping herself busy on several fronts as actress,
mother, sister, friend, advocate, whatever.
What about love?
“That can wait, “ she snaps, “that” meaning a lover (and
beloved) who has yet to find a face in her dreams and schemes, for quite
sometime now. Meanwhile, the heartfelt
outpouring of sympathy and well wishing continues to affect the actress and her
family.
What happened has left an indelible mark in Cherry Pie’s
psyche and physical reality; and the scar is growing, as the wound heals. Besides,
the deep realization about life and living is overwhelming, and everything as
we know them or expect them to be is systematically challenged or compromised.
The evil that people do nowadays seems to grow into forces that we should all
be vigilant to fight or guard against, the still-grieving actress warned.
She doesn’t have to say it but her thoughts can be heard,
if only one cared, enough to listen to her heart speak, mostly in silence. Again, a message from the land of Olympic tragedies
and Socratic ironies reverberates from the pen of one of its less well-known
writers, as though to soothe the grieving.
To wit, and for whatever it’s worth: Life has it that,
according to the sages and the experienced, “three things are always current in
human affairs. One, that there is no
justice in this world. Two, that injustice can only be tempered if there is
good education, respect for a set scale of values, and a stable family. And three, that the state can afford only as
much freedom for the individual as does not jeopardize its own system.”
Of course, such a redeeming insight is quite a welcome
spell. No matter what the situation, for Cherry Pie Picache, life goes on
despite, and beyond, the shadow of the storm.
10/11/14
