CHERRY Pie Picache at the wake of her mom Zenaida Sison GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
“No human being deserved to be violated that way,” said actress Cherry Pie Picache of the fate of her mother, Zenaida Sison, who was found dead with several stab wounds in her Quezon City home on Friday. Police said she was killed in a robbery.
Sison’s body was cremated on Wednesday afternoon. She was 75.
“I’m angry; the whole family feels the same. We demand answers to a lot of questions,” Picache told the Inquirer on Tuesday during Sison’s wake at the Arlington Memorial Chapels in Quezon City.
Sison’s body was in a closed white casket. “People speculate that this is because our mom’s face was damaged. That’s not true. This is her wish. She was very vain. She actually told us that she didn’t want anyone looking at her lying in a coffin.”
Mom’s wish
Picache said it was also her mom’s wish to be cremated immediately after death. “We couldn’t comply with that part because we had to wait for my two sisters to come home from the United States. Their family would like to see mom first.”
The actress added: “She also wanted us to be gathered, complete—that’s what I’m realizing now. Through her death, the family became united. We are now more expressive of our love for each other. We’ve always been close, but not like this.”
Picache’s sister Pinky Herrera-Hibbard, who is based in the United States, said her last moments with Sison were on a trip to Beijing in 2013. “It was our way of celebrating Mom’s 75th birthday (in advance) because I couldn’t celebrate it with her this year. She was a well-traveled person, but had not gone to Beijing before. The trip was nice, also because Cherry Pie and her son (Neo) joined us.”
She added: “Mom told me, ‘This may be our last trip together.’ Since she is sometimes sentimental, I simply replied, ‘We’ll [take] another trip when you come visit me in the US.’ I hold on to that memory because that’s the very last time I saw her alive.”
Linchpin
Picache’s talent manager, Ed Instrella, said the actress has yet to grieve. He explained, “She is the linchpin of the family at the moment. She knows that she has to be strong for everybody.”
Instrella said Picache was very careful about revealing the shocking news of Sison’s death to him because he was just recovering from a stroke. “I felt dizzy when I learned what happened. Once I was strong enough, I went to the house to be with Pie, but I purposely didn’t look around.”
He described Sison as “very sharp, frank and funny,” and always in the mood to tell stories. “It’s true that she was vain, and always scolded Pie whenever she (Picache) went to public places without makeup.”
Actresses Gelli de Belen and Carmina Villarroel, who arrived at the wake together, said they could offer nothing to Picache’s family “but prayers so they will find peace.”
“We both hugged Cherry Pie,” added Villarroel. “We hope for her to be strong and to overcome this.”
Former Sen. Ernesto Maceda joined Picache’s family in celebrating Mass that night.
Pie’s annual visits
Mike Bartolome of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines program department said that, for several years now, Picache has been joining its visits to children who are in conflict with the law.
“She first joined us on a trip to Bicutan. It was her birthday,” Bartolome recalled. “When the establishment closed down, we went to visit the children of Molave Youth Home (in Quezon City). It has become a yearly thing for her. There was a time when she gave each of the kids a pair of shoes.”
Comedian John Lapus, who last worked with Picache in the comedy movie “Here Comes the Bride,” said he is praying that the police will act fast. “That will help ease the pain of the family,” Lapus said. “I’ve heard a lot of stories about her from Cherry Pie. I can only imagine the pain my friend is experiencing. To lose a mom in this very tragic way is really hard to bear.”
(E-mail mcruz@inquirer.com.ph)