Carmen Diokno

nena lacked one semester in accounting FEU when world war II broke out. after the war, she worked as a waitress in the american red cross canteen, MCU and had many american officers as admirers. she became formally engaged to belek madrigal, scion of the wealthy madrigal family. when she was introduced to jose w diokno ( Pepe) by the mayor of manila arsenio lacson, she fell in love with pepe and broke off her engagement to belek, much to the dismay of her mother mameng. at that time pepe was just starting out as a law apprentice at his father's office. pepe's father was a justice of the supreme court. pepe had an old car which often broke down and had to be pushed to restart. pacita and i were used to chaperoning nena with belek and to first class restaurants, a jeep that always worked and going loge or first class in movie theaters. when pepe courted nena for 3 yrs pacita and i adjusted to the rickety car, orchestra seats for movies, limiting orders at the aristocrat restaurant to drinks only girls" when pepe was broke and once in a while sandwiches too". they would afterwards hold hands and chat by the seawall while pacita and i would stay in the car. pepe's parents did not approve of nena and wanted their son to marry a socialite daughter of justice abad santos. they went pepe to the states for 6 months to "sow his wild oats" and forget nena. nena and pepe kept writing to each other long letters daily and once we waited at the postoffice for his long awaited tel call. nena got sick with tb while pepe was away. the moment pepe arrived at the airport he headed straight for our accessoria in oroquieta and mama told him nena was upstairs in bed sick. pepe right away proposed and they got married shortly afterwards. they had 9 children one after the other and nena had hardly time to recuperate and thus gained weight. this was the time pepe was campaigning as senator all over the Philippines. his law practice also thrived and they moved to their new house designed by pablo antonio in magallanes ave, magallanes village, makati. this had a nice pool and pool house and became the hub of gatherings on sundays with our kids enjoying the pool with their cousins: pacita's kids, my kids and nena's kids. vicente then was still single.