She opened the show with a Venus/Zodiac medley, brought down onstage from the ceiling perched on a half moon. At the end of the concert, she was a full shimmering, triumphant moon! And she had each one in the audience putty at the palm of her hand.
Then, she started to thank everyone who helped her mount the concert. She mentioned people who bought tickets and who asked for free ones. She thanked the men of her life and said that, because of them, she is where she is today. "At sayang, hindi na nila ako matitikman." She was crying, laughing and talking all at the same time. And people laughed and cried with her. Only Ai Ai can pull off this kind of performance that is partly joke and mostly true.
But at this point, she could have said and have done anything; the whole coliseum was seduced by the magic only Ai Ai could weave.
Then she started to sing What Matters Most.
Half of the words were lost in her throat and heart; her sobbing would not allow the lyrics to come out. Garbled but the message of the song was delivered eloquently.
She was talking to her audience and most especially to herself. Read on:
It’s not how long we held each other’s hands/
What matters is how well we loved each other (So true Ai Ai. So simple yet so hard to understand.)
It’s not how far we’ve traveled on our way/
But what we found to stay (How many of us refuse to see life this way?)
It’s not the spring we see/
But all the shades of green (It’s funny how we miss to see the greens.)
It’s now how long I held you in my arms/
What matters most is how sweet the years we shared together (If only we realize this early on in our lives!)
It’s not how many summertime/
We have to give to fall/
The early morning smiles/
We cheerfully recall/
What matters most is that we loved at all (So true, Ai Ai!)
Yes, after climbing the highest peak, Ai Ai can clearly see the things that matter most. She kept on saying that "last ko na ito. Natupad ko na ang pangarap kong mapuno ang Araneta Coliseum."
Now, it’s time to be a mother. "Nagtatampo na ang mga anak ko sa akin. Kailangang asikasuhin ko na sila. Dahil minsan, nakakalimutan ko ipasundo sa school ang anak ko dahil sa kangaragan ko. Tama ba yon?"
One day when your children ask what you’ve done, you can tell them that their mother dared to climb a mountain so high she thought she could not climb it but she did because she loved what she did and she did it for her children.