Last week, the post I made entitled "The First Wedding in Malancañang - Love in the Time of War", made it as one of the most popular posts in this blog.
After all, everyone loves a good love story of Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan levels.
With the permission from the Vargas-Ledesma family, I am posting the full letter written by the groom, Eduardo Ledesma to his father-in-law, Jorge B. Vargas, of which the excerpts appeared in the previous post.
1168 Taft Avenue
Manila, P. I.
July 22, 1943
Dear Dad,
With you and mother I claim the pleasure and pride of loving Nena, perhaps differently according to our individual capabilities but with the same degree of intensity. With you and mother I enjoy, (undeservedly I think) the honor and happiness of having her love. Therefore, it is only natural that we should have her felicity and welfare foremost in our hearts. And with this thought, I place before you my case for wanting to go home. You are aware of my personal wishes and opinion—-let us for the time being discard them. Let me address you on one basis we unanimously agree—-our love for her who is your daughter and who is also my wife. It is true that the trip will be a trial for her, in fact for any woman. It is undeniable that life over there will be many times harder. Things that are so easily accessible to her here will be heavensent for her there—if she can have them at all. There will be more responsibilities and consequently more worries; less amusements, more loneliness. At a glance she seems to be receiving nothing and losing everything in a bargain like this. But this placing her in the crucible of difficulties; the abrupt change in surrounding will make her a mature woman and the best of wife. Of this I am convinced. Because I firmly believe, Dad, that behind her childish exterior, underneath her young years, are the blood and sinews of an admirable man who rose from the common ranks to the place he is now, and that of his kind and understanding, his beloved and loving wife. When you come to think of it, Dad, did not those headaches and heartaches of your struggling years with mother leave you the dearest of memories, hold you together in a tighter spiritual bond? You gave me such a vivid and lasting impression when I asked you for Nena’s hand: it was not your reasonableness; it was not your controlled calm; it was not your being so considerate, although any of these was sufficient to make that interview memorable. Rather it was your question, “Will you love her for the rest of your life?”. The answer was “yes,” is still “Yes,” and God willing, always will be “YES!”. So that throughout her severest tests, during her bitterest sorrows, she will not walk lonely and alone. Her tribulations will be mine as well as her happiness. You, who have been married these past twenty-four years, must know as I have merely been told of the lightness of a sorrow shared, the ecstasy of a happiness divided between man and wife.
Then we come to me. I’m human, Dad. Nights, something inside me argues, “Don’t be a fool, stay. Think of the advantages, the security, the ease that is at your disposal.” I’m tempted. Tempted until I recall that advantages, security, ease are not everything; that man does not live on bread alone, and that so long as our love holds we would be contented just as well in a shack as in a palace. And frankly, Dad, would you think better of a son-in-law who took a ready-made position? How would Nena feel? She is not such a kid not to realize the situation. Do I sound so infernally idealistic? The probability is great that I may not earn as much over there as the position over here. The saving factor of the situation is that I feel that we will manage somehow. Again, Dad, would you consider this attitude as arrogance or overdone pride? If so, let me say this: Heaven forbid, but should there be a time when I feel Nena is much better off here than over there, then so help me, Dad, I’ll swallow my pride to the last drop and ask for your help. Yes, Dad, Nena has shown me that true love knows not the barrier of pride. And here’s a promise to you, Dad: Anytime you come to need us, call, and circumstances permitting we will be at you disposal at the quickest possible time. You and mother will be constantly in our hearts, and if I may rashly say, specially in mine who couldn’t have been more nicely treated by you and mother than if you were my flesh-and-blood parents.
So I have sent the telegram inquiring from Mother and Dad whether it would be advisable for us to leave. You have expressed your doubt as to the wisdom of our living there considering Nena’s position. Somehow, Dad, along the way from the tragic saga of Bataan to the fall of Corregidor I have acquired the philosophy that luck or misfortune, life or death, is where we find it; that as mother said on Eddie’s departure, “Let us have faith in God and everything will turn out right.” The answer will come in a few days and Baby will be informed right away of its contents. That, then, is what I have done.
And so, with your permission and what’s more important your blessing, Nena and I would like to return to begin life as just another Mr. and Mrs. Juan de la Cruz. We will not leave, Dad, if you think our departure unreasonable, if you find my reasons unjustified. We want to go with your understanding, your love and your blessing so that when there shall be once more “peace on earth and goodwill towards men”, we can look forward to a glorious reunion forevermore.
Your respectful and loving son,
Nena and Dading moved back to Negros and began their story that begat Eddieboy, Annemarie, Ina, Maggie, Betsy, Tony, Pepe, Lourdes, and Jorge.
The blogger, Lloyd Tronco, is an Artist, Writer, Entrepreneur and Designer.
He is a Negrense based in Metro Manila, thus the name Talonggo (for
Tagalog-Ilonggo).
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