Controversial and Cebu-rooted Fil-Briton filmmaker Jowee Morel ("Moma," "Ec2luv," "Mona Singapore Escort," "When A Gay Man Loves," "Latak," "HiStory," "Strictly Confidential," "Leona Calderon," "The Making of Quezon City" etc.) was following the events in the death of my loving sister, Lily V Arriero earlier this month.
Jowee and Ate (a term of endearment to an older woman or sister by blood or by affinity) Lily were more than socmed friends.
Morel and Arriero were in-person buddies.
It started when I introduced him to her personally in one of the director's personal visits to our house.
The two had a mutual, congenial first meeting.
They immediately clicked with one another.
They were compatible.
Whenever Jowee was in town, he would meet up or pay Ate Lily a visit.
When the Fil-Briton film artist is abroad, specifically in the United Kingdom, he would deluge my sister with Facebook messages that perked her up and vice-versa.
So when the shocking news of Ate Lily's death reached Morel, he was devastated.
"I can feel your pain," noted Jowee in our FB Messenger exchanges.
It's really painful to lose a very loving sis who was my surrogate mother since my mom died in 1998.
"Be strong. You are not alone. You are family to me . i loved Ate Lily's genuine and accommodating embrace of the LGBT," exclaimed Morel.
"I will surely and sorely miss her," quipped the internationally celebrated filmmaker.
Ate Lily was interred at the Nuestra Señora del Pilar cemetery in Lopez, Quezon on January 13, 2025.
May her soul rest in peace, a woman who was a friend to most showbiz people like Lhar Santiago, Roland Lerum, Obette Serrano, Angelique Lazo, Amazing Diva Armie Zuniga, Art Tapalla and the late Mario Dumaual, among others.
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