YOUNG VOICE
Shoebsession
Her shoes are the fragments, the puzzle pieces that tell the story of her colorful life.
IF Cinderella ended up with a glass slipper deficit, Elsie was a ‘sigurista’. She made a local Marikina inside her humble home in the past 38 years. She has a collection of not-so-ordinary ‘shoes’. They are bags, plates, jewelry, ash trays, mugs, erasers, candles, fans, bottles, pots and pillows that resemble shoes.
Elsie is my grand aunt. Whenever I go to her house for a visit, I look forward not only for her yummy steamed broccoli but also to keep updated with her latest shoe count.
Lola Elsie’s desire to collect shoes sparked when she was cleaning her orange Alladin-inspired ceramic shoes ashtray sometime in 1972. She journeyed from one shoe castle to another and from Manila to Davao, in search for the next memorabilia. Soon, her relatives and close friends supported her obsession until the time came when she had to procure cabinets to house her multitude of shoes.
Hers was not merely a collection of chunks of ceramics cooked in the heat of commercialism with a bar code beneath. Her collection is a tangible reminder of memories and value.
Elsie’s favorite is a Marilyn Monroe-inspired red porcelain shoe that she bought in the United States. It’s not because it’s Marilyn Monroe; its Elsie’s splendid American adventure. There were shoes from Brunei sent by her only daughter and my aunt Barbie. It’s not the royal vibe from the Kingdom of Brunei but it’s because she was remembered by her jolly daughter.
I also have my own one-shot try in the field of collection. As a Harry Potter fan, I was nearly obsessed with every Potter merchandise I could lay my eyes on; from my 2 fully-pasted albums to my 12 personally autographed fan mails and even my hot choco mug. However, with the shift of priorities, the collection remained stagnant. But there are times that when I look back at my own mini-Hogwarts, I couldn’t help but smile. That pencil case I got from Toy Kingdom after an encouraging tantrum I staged at the center of the store. That laminated picture of the scarred boy wizard was a birthday gift from a close friend. In the end, the price of the thing does not count. It’s the process of acquiring them that you will cherish.
Value is deeply rooted, innate and connected within an individual. Value cannot be priced and cannot be judged because it was formed out of an experience, a memory.
Last November 20, Lola Elsie celebrated her birthday. I wished her more shoes to come.
She is not a mere shoe-collector. She’s an educator, an aunt, a sister, a mother and a grandmother. Her shoes are the fragments, the puzzle pieces that tell the story of her colorful life. The same with you and me. What we collect and what we value will become reminders of moments embedded in our lives. We need to keep them on display so we will always be reminded of where are we now and where are we going.
It is 38 years of shoebsession and counting.
Elsie’s little Marikina is not just a shoe emporium. It’s more than that.
Belated Happy Birthday Lola Elsie.
Thank you for the amazing column idea, Auntie Barbie.
(Reactions to reylangarcia@yahoo.com)
