We used to call each other “Condolence”.
The story behind this odd endearment took place during a lull in our Speech class at UP Cebu back in the late 80s. Sal (Salvador Malto), then a junior BM student was animatedly chatting with a sophomore classmate about their respective batches’ intrams muses. My friend Leilah and I just silently listened to them until Sal finally turned to us and asked who our Fine Arts muse was going to be. Caught off guard, we shyly told him it was a freshie from Davao whose name I can’t recall by now. “Is she pretty?” he bluntly asked. “Well yeah”, we modestly admitted, “but the thing is, she’s kinda fat, as in FAT (Fine Arts Tambok!)” And without batting an eyelash, he laughed so hard and blurted out “Condolence na lang gyud sa Fine Arts!” We had such a good laugh and have been calling each other “Hoy, Condolence!” whenever we’d cross paths in school since then. And so that was how our amusing endearment came to be.
Years after our UP days and still with our small world, Sal, already a budding fashion designer, became my eldest sister’s barkada (my sister has a bunch of gay friends whom we consider as her honorary sisters and Sal happened to be one of them), designed and created my sister’s and sister in law’s wedding gowns, custom-made my mother’s favorite slacks, made my nephew’s cool Chinese-collared barong, etc. But somehow after school, where my 4-walled friendship with Sal took off, and despite his closeness with my sister, we hardly saw each other anymore and we just sort of grew tired of calling each other “Condolence”. In fact, I have already forgotten it until I heard Sal’s untimely battle with aneurysm last night. I still couldn’t believe our ever bubbly friend has gone way, way ahead of his time. I wonder how my sister is taking it right now. Out of terrible shock from the sudden news, I can’t even shed a tear yet. I don’t know what else to say. The only thing that comes to my mind right now is our weird endearment.
Condolence Sal. We will miss you.
(In photo: Sal, Joey, Richie, my sister Marites and Rudy)
