Quarantine gives Gwen & David time to discover each other

Since the quarantine was declared in March, Gwen Zamora and husband David Semerad with their year-old son Cooper have been shuttling between their house in Manila and their farm in Batangas, discovering more and more about each other in the process.

They are a mixed-blood couple and are hitting it off well. Gwenaelle Tasha Mae Agnese Zamora is Filipino-Italian and David John Semerad is Filipino-Czech. His twin brother, Anthony, is locked down in Australia with girlfriend Sam Pinto. The brothers are PBA players.

Gwen and David with one-year-old son Cooper adjusting beautifully to life in their farm in Batangas. Since the quarantine last March, the family has been shuttling between their farm and their new house in Pasig City.

How has the adjustment period been so far?

“From the farm to Manila? It’s a lot different, that’s for sure,” said Gwen. “We’ve been indoors a lot more. In the farm, we’ve always been outside, gardening. Also, our house on the farm is kind of indoor-outdoor, so we don’t have a full four walls around us the whole time. It’s different for Cooper because we used to work him out in the lot, in the garden. Now, we’re just inside. The space is a big difference because the farm is bigger than the home that we’re in now. Space-wise, the home is bigger than the one in the farm. Kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms. In the farm, we were focused more on experiencing the outdoors.”

The past five months, they have discovered a lot about each other and continue doing so.

“There’s always room for improvement, even in our relationship,” assured Gwen. “We always find that there are parts of it that keep growing. Our relationship in itself keeps growing, and our experiences keep growing. From being in quarantine together in Batangas, then back to Manila, then in quarantine again, we’ve learned so much about each other.”

David has nothing but praises for Gwen.

“She is a really good homemaker,” noted David. “She prepares all our meals. It’s amazing the way she takes care of Cooper and still takes care of me at the same time. I didn’t expect these things from Gwen. I thought she’d be laidback. She keeps us on schedule, and that’s something I needed in my life. Gwen makes it happen. She’s strict about meal time. When she cooks dinner or lunch, I have to be at the table right away. I can’t say, ‘In 30 minutes’ or ‘Wait!’ She’s strict that we eat as a family together.”

It was the family’s decision to be quarantined in their farm.

“We escaped there,” admitted Gwen, “but we were not really sure how long we’d be there. We were not really prepared. We thought we’d have time to get more belongings. We only had three days worth of stuff. We overpacked for Cooper, so he was fine. It was also great that in the farm you won’t need much. It was a good thing we got to buy from the market. The lockdown wasn’t that strict yet. David was supposed to have work in Manila but the quarantine continued. So we just stayed there.”

It didn’t take long to adjust to farm life. They have learned to enjoy it.

Shared David, “We wake up early, around 5:30 a.m., to water the garden. Cooper also would wake up early. We’d work out in the morning and then, have breakfast. We’d have a nice lunch. We take a nap. We watch old movies. We’d have coffee then at sunset we walk with Cooper. After that, Gwen prepares dinner. Shower. Then, sleep. We sleep early because there’s no electricity in the neighboring areas.”

From Taguig, the family has moved to a new home in Pasig City which David described as “100 percent bigger and better” than their previous home in BGC.

“Our little home in BGC was okay for David and me,” said Gwen. “But with Cooper and the dog, it was too hard to be in a little home. We had to upgrade. Cooper now has his own room. You can’t compare home living to condo living.”

Cooper turned a year old last Aug. 15. Are they raising Cooper the way they were raised by their parents?

Gwen: “My parents let me explore as I grew up, so it’s the same. If he falls, we’ll be like, ‘It’s okay. You’re okay.’ We want him to explore on his own. No scolding. The most we scold him is if he’s naughty, we put him in a corner. As much as possible we talk to him.”

David: “It’s hard to know because he’s young.”

Gwen: “But he’s showing signs that he knows. So when he’s pushing our buttons, we know he’s testing us and we talk to him.”

For Cooper’s birthday, Gwen accumulated a few gifts that she and David wrapped and had Cooper open them.

“It was simple because of the quarantine. We stayed home and kept safe,” related David. “My parents in Australia baked cupcakes for Cooper, and we had a video call, a Zoom party.”

Added Gwen: “We recently had a shoot for him. He was able to eat his first cake from Aprica. He loved it. His eyes lit up when he put the icing in his mouth. You could tell from his eyes that he was tired an hour after, but he couldn’t stop moving. When he saw another cake, I had to stop him already.”

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