The Perfect Christmas Gift
Elizabeth Ann Quirino
Their house in Malate, Manila had been bombed and leveled to the ground in February 1945. Their home was gone and all their worldly belongings in it. But the young, unmarried Filipina in her 20s named Lourdes Reyes was neither bitter or angry. Instead, she was grateful that the bombings had spared her mother, Luz Jugo Reyes and brothers Roberto, Ponciano, Willie and his wife, Helen. Their family was intact. Nobody had died. Their friends and neighbors throughout the city had lost family members in the heavy bombings of the Battle of Manila. World War II had just ended in the Pacific and there were devastating losses.
It was 1946 now, her family’s first Christmas since Manila was liberated. Lulu, as she was fondly called, in a light cotton dress hand sewn by her mother, walked through the brightly-lit streets of Escolta. She was in search of the perfect gift for the people who meant the world to her — her mother, and her brothers.
Lulu listened to the Christmas carols coming from the different stores. Escolta was the prime shopping district of Manila, post-World War II. The city was still recovering from its heartbreaking destruction. But there was an air of optimism. The holiday ornaments and bright lights twinkled even brighter.
Lulu checked her purse for her shopping list. What would Mama want? What would her brothers want, she asked herself silently, as she peeked into each store window. Her budget was tight but she hoped she could stretch it. If only she knew what gifts to get, she thought.
Then she suddenly remembered she had hidden the crisp fifty-peso bill in her wallet. In 1946, fifty pesos in Philippine currency was a lot of money. It was a generous gift from an American military officer for her family. The officer was grateful Lulu had courageously gone into concentration camps where American and Filipinos who survived the Bataan Death March were incarcerated. Lulu had bravely brought in medicines, food and family letters for the POWs.
This was her family’s first Christmas after the war. She didn’t want to think about her painful experiences in the last four years during wartime, going to prison camps with the most inhumane conditions, to search for her missing brother Willie, who had fought next to American soldiers.
What would have happened if she had not smuggled in quinine to the incarcerated American soldiers who were sick with malaria? She dreaded to think of what would have happened if the enemy had caught her. Most of all, she shuddered to think of how her family would have dealt with tragedy had she never found her brother Willie in Capas, Tarlac,and if he had never had survived the Bataan Death March. God is good, she silently prayed. My family survived the war.
Lulu glanced at her watch. She had to hurry shopping. She didn’t want to be late for Christmas Eve mass.
Suddenly, something caught her eye at the next shop window she approached. A tired-looking woman with a large number of children, stared longingly at the window display. Lulu assumed the woman was the mother of the children. She also noticed the children were dressed simply, in contrast to the fashionable shoppers walking around.
Lulu smiled at the mother.
“Are these your children, ma’am?” Lulu asked.
The woman smiled back. Lulu learned the woman was a widow named Pelagia Soliven. She and her children were there to window-shop and admire the holiday lights and ornaments.
The woman reminded Lulu of her own mother, Luz, also a widow. The children reminded Lulu of her brothers when they were little. Through the years her widowed mama worked hard to give them a good Christmas meal, nice clothes and gifts. But what always mattered was they had each other. Even now, after the war had ended, her mama thanked the good Lord that no one in their family had perished.
An idea sparked in Lulu. She opened her purse and took out the fifty-peso bill the American officer had given her. Lulu handed it to the woman.
“Ma’am this is for you and your children. It was a gift from an American military officer. He wanted a family like yours to enjoy it for the holidays. Merry Christmas,” Lulu happily said.
Lulu said goodbye and left for home. She couldn’t wait to tell her mother and brothers. The story of how she gave the 50-pesos to a stranger and her children was the best gift she could give her family. She had generously given a gift of love to another family who needed it more. Lulu knew in her heart, that this Christmas after the war, having their family complete was all her mama and brothers wanted. That was what mattered. They already had what they needed. It was the perfect Christmas gift of all.
