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WHEN
faced with insurmountable odds or depressing problems,
there are many who just want to roll up in a ball, hide
away, and hope they won’t have to wake up to another
difficult day.
Then
there are those, like my Tita Mila, who take their
burdens and use them to produce beautiful works of art
and fabulous decorative products.
But I’m
pushing ahead of the story, so let me backtrack a bit.
You see
on January 8, 1994, Tita Mila’s daughter Judy, my second
cousin, was diagnosed with leukemia. She was 30 years
old then and at the prime of her life. It was a shock to
us all as no one in our family, the Arnaldos, ever had
the disease. Judy was working then and just had a simple
medical check-up because she felt tired all the time.
Tableware with a story Besides the touch of beauty and
elegance they lend to the dinner table, Vincie’s
Collection of unique tableware has a very human and very
heartwarming backstory.
It was a
most difficult time for my aunt. She is close to my
mother and I understood that my aunt was trying to raise
funds for their travel to the US where Judy was to
undergo a bone marrow transplant.
At the
same time that she was worrying about Judy, my aunt was
also taking care of her husband, my uncle Jesse, who was
then battling with lung cancer. While his illness had
been in remission, after 15 years the cancer was back
leaving him weak and physically immobile.
In the
US, Judy was given a good prognosis for her impending
operation. After all, these days bone marrow transplants
are almost performed as regularly as heart transplants.
“The doctors assured me that she was strong enough and
would easily recover from the operation,” my aunt tells
me. But as fate would have it, my cousin went into a
coma and her doctors gave her a 10-percent chance of
survival.
In times
of crisis, almost all of us turn to the Lord for help.
When we undergo the most difficult of times in our
lives, almost all our beliefs about how the world works
and the systems of religion and spirituality collapse
under the realities we face.
Tita
Mila needed to know that God was still up there looking
out for her daughter. She joined a Bible-study group
where she met Vincie Bavario, an American lady, who
taught her how to glue fabric on to glass plates. It was
the perfect outlet for my aunt to release her stress and
doubts, as she waited for Judy to come out of her coma.
With an emotional support group around her, and a hobby
she could engage in, she was able to keep strong. “The
craft became my therapy. It saved my sanity. God gave me
something to keep busy with,” Tita Mila recalls.
I
remember that year, 1996, most fervently. I would make
impassioned deals with God, asking him to heal my cousin
in exchange for my unwavering devotion. I’m sure
everyone in the family did the same. It was especially
heart-wrenching for me then because I practically grew
up with Judy, as she was only a couple of years older
than me. On weekends I would spend time with her and her
brothers John and Jay, swimming in their pool in their
old family compound along Baler Street in Quezon City.
We went to each other’s birthday parties until we were
too old to have them.
After
two months of lying in bed, asleep and stuck with all
sorts of needles, fed intravenously with food, water and
medicines, one day Judy just opened her eyes. It was the
miracle everyone had been praying for.
Judy’s
doctors had virtually given up on her for good but her
will to live perhaps won out. Tita Mila never faltered
in her belief that God would hear her prayers. Judy
coming out of the coma was proof that He had bigger
plans for the family.
When
Tita Mila and Judy came home in 1996, my aunt brought
home her newfound craft and decided to put up a business
called Vincie’s Collection Inc. “in grateful testimony
to God’s love and presence in our lives.” Her designs
were a hit. Her collection of dinner sets, glasses,
coasters, pitchers, trays and multipurpose tableware
were sold out in Rustan’s, The Landmark, Tesoro’s and
boutique shops. She was able to amass a loyal following
among Metro society’s luminaries and artistes such as
the Tantocos, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay’s spouse
Elenita, Malou Rodriguez, Lydia Paredes, the wife of the
Apo Hiking Society’s Jim Paredes, and the late Inday
Badiday.
The
business was going so strong that Tita Mila had to hire
a lot of workers just to fulfill all her orders. What
started out as a garage business with only three people
became a full-blown enterprise with a 24-member staff
and a 300-sq-m factory. Christmases were particularly
crazy with the seemingly nonstop demand from individual
customers and the shops she supplied to. “We
painstakingly labor on every product. Mixing fabric on
glass is labor-intensive and hand-crafted,” she
explains.
When she
returned to the
US
in 1998, it was Tita Mila’s turn to teach Vincie, her
mentor, the process by which she was able to perfect and
smoothen the products she now produces. “Vincie is very
proud and thrilled. Nobody in the world does this, you
know?” my aunt declares with pride.
Tita
Mila only uses imported fabric and glassware made by
Libbey’s, Duralex and Arcoroc. She also uses a special
glue to stick the fabric to the décor, such that the
fabric backing actually makes the item 90-percent
unbreakable. The dinner plates are also microwaveable
for less than five minutes.
Fate, of
course, has a certain way of shaking up our lives. In
2002 my uncle Jesse passed away after a long bout with
cancer. Lost and heartbroken, Tita Mila’s creativity and
desire to design waned. She closed shop and stopped
taking orders to tend to her grief and personal issues.
“Parang
I lost interest in life. So the artist in me also went.
I was depressed for about six months. I went to the US,
to Alaska, but it didn’t help...I kept crying all the
way there. I felt so alone because my husband and I had
developed a codependent relationship. I was just so used
taking care of him. So I felt lost after he was gone.”
When she
came home, Tita Mila decided to enroll in piano class.
“Music became therapy for me. It helped heal me.” Then
she took all sorts of workshops about communing with the
universe, creative writing, etc. “I knew I had to rely
on myself to make me happy. I couldn’t rely on my own
children because they have their own lives. No one can
heal me except myself.”
Today,
armed with a newfound zest to create and give joy to
others, Tita Mila, with the help of Judy, is at it
again, making fabulous fabric-on-glass tableware. “I
just kept on praying to the Blessed Sacrament. Then I
woke up one morning and I just thought of starting the
Vincie’s Collection again. I went to my glass supplier,
contacted my people. Then I went to Rustan’s to ask if
they were still interested to buy from me again—and they
were!”
Each
item is individually hand-crafted by skilled workers
which gives its distinct and customized look. The slight
touches of imperfection make these hand-crafted products
precious and unique. The exceptional and stylish
products under Vincie’s Collection are currently sold at
Rustan’s and Shopwise.
§
If you wish to delight someone with these dazzling and
collectible items, or simply brighten up your home,
write Mila Arnaldo/Vincie’s Collection at vinciecoll@yahoo.com.ph
or call 425-1318, (0921) 472-7873. |
