Toots was also born under twilight delivery in the Delgado Clinic on Horan, Paco, like Jojo. He was baptized Felipe but I changed it to Ernesto in order that his first name would have the same number of letters as SIBAYAN – seven. He was born with long eyelashes and had a dimple.
When Toots was born on February 7, 1950, all my luck came. I was promoted to Captain, I became a lawyer, and I got three (3) years’ back pay as MIA with the rank of 3rd Lieutenant! I was then 32 years old. Praise the Lord!
He, being born with three older sisters, also acted like a girl. He would imitate his sisters by squatting when urinating.
One Sunday in the Paco church, I was carrying Toots when they passed near us the plate for collecting alms, or contributions. He right away grabbed the money on the plate! I had to tell him to drop it back. I guess he thought the money was for distribution.
When the new officers’ quarters in Crame were ready for occupancy, we were the first family that occupied one of them. It was better than the house at Santolan Road. There we slept together on the floor of the sala under one big mosquito net, including our maid, Mining.
One day Toots and Bobby had a fight and I had to punish them. When I got in our car to go to work, Toots, with tears in his eyes, went to the door to wave “goodbye” to me. I was in tears along the way, too.
The newly built quarters in Crame for officers were just inside the wall, surrounded by rice fields back of the house, where we watched the farmers planting rice, singing and accompanied by a guitar. We also watched them harvest the rice and thresh the rice, accompanied by singing and by a guitar. All that area is now occupied by houses.
