Aside from gathering the living original cast members of the hit television gag show “Champoy” in the early 1980s, actress and comedienne Tessie Tomas personally recalled the happy and memorable days with the late Cherie Gil.
Tessie and Cherie were together in “Champoy” and other important films and TV shows.
When the sad news of Gil’s passing reached Tomas last week, she was saddened if not devastated.
Tessie took her grief to social media. "Goodbye, my dear Cherie—As I try to cope with your passing, I will cling to fond memories of us and Mitch (Valdez) as ‘Champettes’ in ‘Champoy.’ You gave it a good fight, time to rest now my dear. I love you and I will miss you very much,” she quipped.
Tomas also remembered the good old days of her bonding with Cherie in the US with Robin Tomas.
“I will cling to fond memories as well as all the fun times we had with Robin in NYC,” she added.
Actor-director Leo Rialp, another “Champoy” cast member had reminisced and memorialized fellow actor Cherie. Leo attributed his eulogy to the German philosopher and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. "There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve—even in pain—the authentic relationship. Furthermore, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain,” echoed Rialp.
It was Noel Trinidad who hosted the reunion of the living cast and crew of “Champoy” which included, aside from Tessie, Mitch and Leo, Mel Villena, German Salvador and Leo Martinez.
The gig was also a tribute to their co-stars Gary Lising and Subas Herrero as well as to their friend and supporter Peque Gallaga.