Carmen Reyes-Icasiano

mameng was the eldest daughter of 5 siblings and third eldest in the family: generoso, francisco, carmen, inocencia, nicanor her mother was macaria baptista and her father francisco reyes. mameng was an accomplished pianist, playing concert pieces by heart until the age of 72 when her osteoarthritis of her fingers prevented her from further playing. she loved the opera and played long playing records of all the operas all day long. she was in love with a gentleman , a scion of a wealthy family from pampanga , esquivel, but her mother disapproved of the match because she claimed this family were "dogeaters" as was the custom in that province. her mother also wanted mameng to take care of her. mameng did up to the time macaria died of uterine cancer. then a dashing graduate of cornell university, ithaca, ny, came home at the request of his ailing father. this was abelardo ycasiano, who promptly courted mameng proposing at the famous hinulugang taktak in antipolo and they married . they had five children carmen ( nena), : abelardo jr who died of japanese dysentery at the age of 2 after being brought to san lazaro hospital in manila from tarlac where they were residing at the time as abelardo was district engineer of tarlac. mameng was devastated . soon after she had a second son vicente and two more daughters when they relocated to manila: paz milagros ( pacita) and macaria ysmaela ( at confirmation renamed caridad with same nickname caring).