He was one of the shortest members among the male batch of class 63-64. Barely reaching five feet on a skinny body, Gabby, together with fellow student commuters from Malaya, Quiao, and Halayhayin in Pililia, Rizal, struggled all the four years of high school in SIC to be where he is now, a dependable Maintenance Man in Kephilco, a South Korean firm engaged in electrical power generation based in Bo. Malaya, Pililia, Rizal.
Today, Gabby with his 5’6″ frame and heavy muscular build, towers above most of his former high school classmates, a few of who, stopped growing past the 5’4″ normal Filipino height. Married to a striking, mestiza-type lass, standing 5’2″, with a lucky mole on her right nose, Gabby has sired three children, the eldest of whom, name Sheila and born prematurely, died only three days after birth. The second child, Sherilyn, born June 5, 1975, is already married with two children, Robinico, 6, and John Romwell, 3. The youngest, Sherwin, slightly taller than Gabby but sporting the same build, is a draftsman and X-ray Technician, now already 26 years old and still single.
Nimfa, his wife, hailed from Baras, Rizal, the eldest in a brood of six from the San Jose clan. Her father, a Phil-Am Life Insurance Agent, conceived and put-up the first electrical system in Quisao where, to give focus to the business, the family took up residence. It was inevitably that Gabby and Nimfa, in their innocence, became childhood friends. After high school, she enrolled for a course in Commerce at the Thomas Claudio Memorial School [now a college] in Morong, Rizal, transferring later on to the Jose Rizal College in Mandaluyong for the same course, with a major in management.
Gabby, on the other hand, took up BSEED at San Ildefonso College and reached third year when, like a fated diversion, he started skipping classes to run after a tall, pretty Fashion Designer from La Union who, herself lovestruck, reciprocated. Forgetting school altogether, Gabby worked for a time at the Ajinomoto Union Industries in Pasig transferring to Steniel Industries in Cainta, Rizal, where he lasted for two years. He was not fired; he simply stopped working. The reason? Something for the movie s.
Unknown to Gabby and his ladylove, the parents of the girl had already committed their daughter to some else of Chinese ancestry. The girl’s refusal fell on deaf ears with the wedding date already set and invitations sent. Both fell helpless as, from a distance, Gabby saw how heavily guarded his lady was. He then made a decision no ordinary man in his situation would ever take. Positioning himself at the door of the church after the wedding, he approached the newly wedded couple and, in full view of the groom who knew nothing about their past, kissed the bride tightly on the lips. To his own delightful surprise, the girl embraced him crying, moving him to whisper, “gusto mo, itatakbo na kita?” But the tears on the bride’s eyes and the innocent smiles on the unsuspecting groom dissolved whatever fantasy Gabby was creating on his mind and, looking reality in the eye, he walked away…
Nimfa was an indoor type, not by choice, but by reason of a disciplinarian, strict, almost authoritarian father. Reaching 18, however, she was grudgingly allowed membership to the San Diego Rotarian Club in Quisao. Not long thereafter, suitors abounded, the most persistent of whom was a native of the barrio, already a college graduate from the Jose Rizal College. Gabby was a member, too, and in one July 1971 trip by the group to attend a friend’s birthday in Quezon City, the two became the butt of joke as they, all in the spirit of fun, pretended to be sweethearts. But what started as a make-believe game turned out to be for real. They were both caught in the whirlwind of their own creation. They have known each other since childhood, and except to ask their true feelings, further discoveries seemed unnecessary.
On September 6, 1971, Nimfa rewarded Gabby what Juliet most lovingly bespoke to her beloved Romeo. Their theme song “And I Love You So…” made the heavens look reachable. Yet, there were pebbles on the way.
Short of only two months to graduate, Nimfa was rumored to have eloped with Gabby on her way to school in Mandaluyong. It was a joke among their friends which reached the ears of her overly-protective father. Such a ‘news’ was enough to compromise family honor and, in a small barrio like Quisao, only a marriage can redeem the honor so unfairly ‘stained’. On January 30, 1972, Gabriel Casale and Nimfa San Jose became one”…for poorer or richer, in sickness or in health…”
Married life is not always a ‘bed of roses.’ While employed as an attendant at the Rizal Provincial Hospital in Pasig, Gabby coached Nimfa to continue with her remaining two months, allowing her to finish the course on schedule. For a time, she worked as a Secretary at the James Garments in Bo. Kapitolyo, but the unsanitary condition of the workplace, coupled with the unfair practices of their employer, created in her phobia against office work. The untimely death of their first-born firmed up their plan to return to Quisao. The birth of two more children caused Gabby to look at foreign shores and in 1983, he left for Kuwait in the employ of a French company for a two-year contract. He returned in 1985 and, with their own family dwelling in a 500 sq. meter lot which he inherited from his parents. In 1986, he was employed in the Maintenance Department of the National Power Corporation inb Bo. Malaya, Pililia, Rizal, a position which he retained even after its transfer to Kiphelco, a Soiuth Korean firm, in 1995.
Two century-old mango trees provide cooling shade to the Casale’s backyard, made even refreshing by the fresh, invigorating winds coming from the open ricefilelds accentuated by a thickset of bamboo grooves seen from a distance. It was a perfect setting for an interview in the early afternoon when the searing heat of the sun makes Gabby’s place a desired oasis. But Lito and I came at dusk and one hour into the interview, I was already freezing, my thin polo shirt providing no protection against the cool, numbing air lashing my body from all directions. I damned myself for not having brought my jacket, wanting so much to hear the unique story that their own grandchildren would love to read and take counsel on, even decades after. Yet, we finished. The freezing air was no excuse. It was only a fleeting inconvenience, absolutely inconsequential. We bid goodbye to the smiling couple. Bu I was still freezing…!
NOTE: SOULMATE! is the introduction of the book “FOOTPRINTS, Class ’64” written by Atty. Amadeo R. Fulgado, published in 2005.
