MEDIUM RARE 

“Look at you all, such great potential!”

That was Imelda R. Marcos speaking to a roomful of about 40 ladies and one or two gentlemen, here for the fourth in a series of first-Tuesday-of-the-month Merienda with Meldy in Malacañang’s Goldenberg Mansion.

“You can do so much for the country,” she said, inspiring one guest to jump to her feet and declare, “We’re here for you, but you need to lead us, whatever project you have in mind!”

In her 21 years as first lady (a few of which she was also governor of Metro Manila), Mrs. Marcos initiated or inspired the creation of monumental infrastructures from bridges and airports to cultural centers, out-of-town training centers for artists and musicians; she built Heart Center, Lung Center, Kidney Institute, BLISS housing projects, plus Convention Center, Folk Arts Theater, Children’s Medical Center, and many more. Yes, she had two decades to do it – many of them with the help of her friends’ financial support – but she could have chosen to sit back and stay quiet in the background.

Which is not the Imelda style. And yet, as she reminded us last Tuesday, “I was a probinsiyana” who attended school in Leyte. According to one account, the guys who played Cupid for her and a certain Ferdinand E. Marcos were the most prominent columnists of the time, Joe Guevarra and Doroy Valencia of Manila Times.

Today’s Imelda, 96 without the wrinkles of old age and what she might call the consequences of a bad temper, is a private citizen residing in Makati who’s afraid of only one thing: crossing a busy street. She has been through exile, an attempted assassination, the ups and downs of politics, and petty controversies. Looking at her, you have to wonder, what am I going to look like at 95?

Among those at last Tuesday’s event were Maurice Lim, Fe Roa Gimenez, Imelda Papin, Charo Yu (it was her birthday, so right on cue, a birthday cake appeared!), Ping Valencia, Nenuca Blardony, Dulce Cepeda, Rose and Michelle Lazaro, Letty Hahn and Suzette, Chiqui and Peachy Veneracion, Bobby Castañeda, Benjie Yap and Fermin Reyes, Beth Lopez de Leon, Jean Saburit, Cory Quirino, Becky Garcia and George Sarakinis, Rosalie Escudero and grandson Daniel, Yolanda de Asis and Joanna. There’ll be a new list next month, promise!