Image: Instagram/@jakezyrusmusic
Jake Zyrus’ estranged mom Raquel Pempengco has one appeal to him: to visit his grandmother confined at the intensive care unit (ICU).
Pempengco made the appeal via a Facebook post on Tuesday, Sept. 18. It showed Zyrus’ grandmother, Tess, in a hospital bed with her mouth open.
Zyrus’ mom said: “Please pray for her… She’s in the ICU right now… napatiran ng ugat sa ulo (A vein in her head burst).”
“[M]asama man akong anak sa tingin nya wala akong magagawa Nanay ko pa rin [siya],” Pempengco expressed. She then told Zyrus: “Sana magparamdam ang paborito nyang apo, ngayon [siya] [kailangan] nito.”
(I may be a bad child in her eyes, but I can’t do anything about it. She’s still my mother.) (I hope her favorite grandchild reaches out to her, she needs him right now.)
Image: Facebook/RA QU EL
At first she was not accepting of her grandchild as a trans man, but they reconciled later. In a “Tonight with Boy Abunda” episode aired back in October 2017, the singer shared one time on meeting his grandmother.
“Nay, kilala niyo pa ba ako?” Zyrus recalled upon meeting Tess. As he told Abunda, his grandmother did not recognize his now deep voice, he reminded her: “Ako yung tinuturuan mo ng kundiman,” to which she replied: “Hoy! Puntahan mo ako dito!”
(Grandma, do you still know me? I was the one you taught kundiman too.) (Hey, you better visit here!)
Meanwhile, Zyrus and Pempengco are known to have a love-and-hate relationship. In January, his mom disregarded Zyrus as a trans man through her birthday greeting to his brother, Carl, by calling him as the only man in the Pempengco clan. /ra
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