Chin-Chin’s mom dies 23 days after the fire

The text message came from Angie Ureta, Chin-Chin Gutierrez’s manager, yesterday morning.

It read:

Chin-Chin’s mother, Cecilia Arnaldo Gutierrez, 64, joined her Heavenly Maker last night (Jan. 12) at 11:56 p.m. Her remains lie at the Faith Chapel of Arlington Chapels on Araneta Ave., Quezon City.

Chin-Chin’s mom died exactly 23 days after a fire gutted the Gutierrezes’ house at the Loyola Heights, Quezon City, at 3 a.m. last Dec. 20. In those trying moments, Chin-Chin forgot her own safety, jumped from the second floor into the first floor where her bedridden mom was, attached to an oxygen tank, and, with the help of their two maids, bodily carried her mom to safety.

The house, acquired in the ’60s by Chin-Chin’s grandfather, Solomon Arnaldo, was where Chin-Chin and her only brother Noni (based in the US) grew up. Chin-Chin’s mom was a nun with the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary for 10 years. She was forced by a serious injury to leave the nunnery.

She was on dialysis, battling complications of diabetes (heart and kidney ailment, etc.) for more than two years and having just survived surgery a few weeks before the fire that ate up all of the Gutierrezes’ earthly possessions (including two cars parked at the garage).

"If it’s a consolation," Chin-Chin told The STAR in a phone interview, "I’m thankful to The Lord for letting my mom go quietly; I’m thankful that she didn’t die in the fire."

Chin-Chin herself was hurt in that fire, sustaining burns in her arms and face. She was confined at The Medical City in Pasig City where her mom was also confined at the ICU where she died Friday night.

Chin-Chin has gotten well enough to resume taping for Maging Sino Ka Man, the ABS-CBN soap where she plays the mom of Sam Milby.

Asked what keeps her strong in the face of two successive tragedies, Chin-Chin said it’s her faith in The Lord.

"Thy will be done!" she said in quiet resignation.