Mahal’s story

She had it in her, ever since she was that high – er, small. Mahal knew she was only three feet tall, but she didn’t resign herself to a life of misery.

She may be vertically-challenged, but that didn’t mean she can’t think big. Mahal visualized herself appearing in movies and seeing her name on the marquee. Luckily for her, Mahal’s humble family – especially her grandmother, who considered her a favorite and gave her the name Mahal – never stood in the way.

They didn’t see the height deficit as a problem. So why should Mahal, born Noemi Tesorero on Dec. 29, 1974?

Mahal herself has a ready answer about her interesting height.

"Sabi ng mother ko, pinaglihi niya ako sa duwende na nakita niya sa bintana," Mahal, born in Virac, Catanduanes, relates.

If she feels bitter about it, the giggly Mahal doesn’t show it. After all, not everyone can have a daily noontime show (ABS-CBN’s MTB) and a TV commercial (Bayantel). Not everyone can wear a ring worth P19,000 at the presscon of Star Cinema’s Mr. Suave, Mahal’s movie with Vhong Navarro in the title role.

The movie uses Mahal’s height for comic effect. She is happily married to the just-as-vertically-challenged Dagul, and Vhong is their grandson.

With Vhong, the dutiful young ‘un paying respects to his grandparents the Pinoy way – by kissing their hands – you get a situation so awkward and ridiculous you just have to look again.

Pint-sized or not, Mahal commands the same respect from her family, composed of four children of which she is the eldest.

No one answers Mahal back, when she has one of her angry fits. No one dares, not just because Mahal is the eldest in the brood. The respect is well-deserved. After all, the responsible Ate has flung open the doors to a better life for her siblings, starting with their father, a former jeepney driver plying the Cubao-Divisoria route.

Thanks to Mahal, a sister is enrolled as a Nursing freshman, and the youngest brother, now 21, has a Criminology degree. He is looking forward to joining a married sister in Taiwan.

That sister, married to a rich Taiwanese, gifted the family with a house in Fairview, where Mahal has an airy room all to herself. The room is tailor-made for the Ate of the house. It has no partitions that will impede easy movement within.

But since the Quezon City subdivision is far from ABS-CBN and other places Mahal frequents, her manager decided to rent a two-storey apartment for her in more accessible Kamias, where she now stays with a sister and a cook.

They help carry the lightweight Mahal (33 lbs.) to her room in the second floor, where she spends many sleepless nights (she’s insomniac) singing her favorite tune, Aegis’ Sinta, and texting the time away. Mura’s sparring partner in MTB keeps two cellphones, the better to keep in touch with her numerous textmates and chase the blues away.

Not that she’s lonely. The grapevine has it that the latest apple of her eyes is a Jericho Rosales-lookalike of a dancer bound for Japan.

They even have a term of endearment: "Sweet."

Mahal may call her handsome dancer "Sweet" many times over, and swoon over her crushes, but she knows that’s as far as she can go. The doctor was honest enough to tell her she can’t bear a child.

But Mahal is not losing sleep over this. She has resigned herself to the fact that she’s cut out for a life of single blessedness.

Thus, this early, she has decided to adopt a girl she can call her own, since she already has two Taiwan-based nephews.

But first things first. Mahal plans to put her hard-earned money where it will grow: in a restaurant, just like the one her sister owns in Taiwan. This time, Mahal will specialize in something as close to her heart as texting at night: Filipino food.

When that day comes, more people will look up to Mahal – figuratively, that is.