Cherry Pie: Pain still there but life must go on

MANILA, Philippines - It’s easy to say that Cherry Pie Picache might have braved the storm, after all what happened to her sprightly 75-year-old mother, Zenaida Vidor Sison, and the flurry of activities that followed in the tragedy’s aftermath, because of her strong and steady faith. Nevertheless, the pain still lingers in moments both random and deliberate and forgetting is yet beyond her in many respects, even if she always has taken perpetual succor under the wings of the Blessed Virgin. Indeed, it is something that has served her exceedingly well in times of trials and great need.

However, as the master of ceremonies says, the show must go on. The actress-mother has traveled to support her son’s passion and pursuit on the tennis court. And it’s no mean feat for a no mean player: 12-year-old Nio Tria is currently ranked as the country’s No. 2 in the 12-and-under category of the racket sport.

At any rate, their recent trip to Singapore may not have yielded any silver or gold, but it proved to all and sundry that Nio and his team’s storming performance could smash a well-funded and well-trained nationals tennis team of the First World host. Small wonder, to think that tennis, as many people know, is not a popular item or event in the list of the Philippine Sports Commission.

With son Nio, who is currently ranked as the country’s No. 2 in the 12-and-under category of the racket sport

Recently, Nio and his young teammates played “host” to a group of world-class professional tennis player at the Mall of Asia Arena, under the auspices of the International Premier Tennis League, with Manila as its first stop. Also in the IPTL itinerary, among other places, are Singapore, India and Dubai.

About a month of her mother’s passing, Cherry Pie received an appropriate award, in recognition of her consistent charity work for the men and women behind bars, from the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). The irony of the award given at this time is not lost on those who are aware of the stark reality of the actress’ situation, considering that the suspect to her mother’s murder is now in prison.

Through the guidance of her friends, the actress has charted a different path far from the madding showbiz crowd. On certain occasions, especially during the annual Prison Awareness Week in October, Cherry Pie finds time to visit and bring food and other goodies as well as good will and glad tidings to the inmates of both the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City and the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

Now on respite from the pushing schedule of TV soap operas, the Oxfam ambassador (“Save Water”) and longtime Boardwalk endorser goes back to mainstream movies, shooting her scenes for Chito Roño’s Feng Shui 2, Star Cinema’s official entry to the 2014 Metro Manila Film Festival, and already almost through with its principal photography. Because of her delayed work on the Kris Aquino-Coco Martin film, Cherry Pie has decided to go double time and shoot for successive days — well, hopefully.

As of this writing, however, her “promised” days are hardly over, just like pained promise not to cry again whenever the thought of her dear departed mother crosses her mind. Indeed, the slow wisdom of grief slackens the pace of our healing, even as we grow in the process. The important thing is what Cherry Pie has learned — and is still learning — under the circumstances that have transpired since that fateful day.

Meanwhile, the fortysomething actress has finished one other film earlier, tucked under her belt, and probably slated for next year’s release, if and when the “whistle blows.” More scripts are coming her way, “indie” or otherwise, and it seems Cherry Pie is bent on working away her sadness and sorrow by keeping herself busy on several fronts as actress, mother, sister, friend, advocate, whatever.

What about love?

“That can wait,” she is quick to say, “that” meaning a lover (and beloved) who has yet to find a face in her dreams and schemes, for quite sometime now. Meanwhile, the heartfelt outpouring of sympathy and well wishing continues to affect the actress and her family.

What happened has left an indelible mark in Cherry Pie’s psyche and physical reality; and the scar is growing, as the wound heals. Besides, the deep realization about life and living is overwhelming, and everything as we know them or expect them to be is systematically challenged or compromised. The evil that people do nowadays seems to grow into forces that we should all be vigilant to fight or guard against, the still-grieving actress warned.

She doesn’t have to say it but her thoughts can be heard, if only one cared, enough to listen to her heart speak, mostly in silence. Again, a message from the land of Olympic tragedies and Socratic ironies reverberates from the open of one of its less well-known writers, as though to soothe the grieving.

To wit, and for whatever it’s worth: Life has it that, according to the sages and the experienced, “three things are always current in human affairs. One, that there is no justice in this world. Two, that injustice can only be tempered if there is good education, respect for a set scale of values, and a stable family. And three, that the state can afford only as much freedom for the individual as does not jeopardize its own system.”

Of course, such a redeeming insight is quite a welcome spell. No matter what the situation, for Cherry Pie, life goes on despite, and beyond, the shadow of the storm.