Another family tragedy occurred at the same time award-winning actress Jaclyn Jose was being honored by her kith and kin and colleagues from the local entertainment industry.
While the chapel at the Arlington Memorial Chapels in Araneta Avenue in Quezon City was too crowded where Jaclyn's remains were laid in state, the Chapel 9 of Funeraria Paz on the other end of the avenue--where the body of a mom of two television, film and stage celebrities--was empty except for at least, four mourners.
The name of the dead on the thinly attended funeral parlor chapel was Rita Mansueto, mother of singer Ricky Mansueto, a teenage sensation in the 70s and actress Lovely Mansueto, a dramatic young star of the 90s and the millennium.
I've known the Mansuetos for four decades.
Ricky is a contemporary of Arnold Gamboa, Maribel Aunor, Winnie Santos, Eddie Villamayor, Adrian Panganiban, among the teenyboppers of the era while Lovely started out her acting career as a child star who blossomed into a beautiful lady.
Mommy Rita died of heart attack at 86.
She was a very generous woman who ran an eatery at Carvajal Street in Binondo, Manila.
Rita and Manding Mansueto also built a restaurant in Escolta which was the melting pot of showbiz denizens from the big stars to the extras who flocked, huddled, negotiated businesses of all kinds, primarily movie assignments, ate lunch, merienda and dinner during their shooting lulls.
The scarcity of well-wishers on the Mansuetos was purportedly because they're not as visible as Jaclyn and her cohorts.
May Mommy Rita rest in eternal peace.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #RickyMansueto