Why is Gina glowing even if she’s separada?

Separated doesn’t necessarily mean unhappy. Look at Gina Alajar, estranged for almost a year now from her husband of 23 years, Michael de Mesa. If only Michael can see her now.

Gina’s face has never glowed this much before. The radiance is not the product of cosmetics nor expensive jewelry. It comes from within.

Gina’s tucked-in shirt over belted pants at a recent presscon for Regal Films’ Metro Filmfest entry Bahay Ni Lola, showed off a whistle-bait 26-inch waistline. Her weight, she says, has gone down from 109 to an enviable 105 pounds, thanks to regular visits at Marie France’s Makati branch.

Look ma, no liposuction!

"I was afraid of going through liposuction," Gina admits. "So I decided to lose weight on my own instead. I’m now following Fanny Serrano’s example of sticking to a vegetarian diet. For breakfasts I have fruits with distilled water. I go for raw vegetables. If I have to take in cooked vegetables, it must be without fat."

It was not so many months back when Gina separated with Michael for the nth and final time.

"I caught him flirting with this girl on the cell phone," she says, revealing what the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was.

Her world came crashing down. Because she couldn’t eat, and her mind was crowded with questions about what happened ("why?" and "why me?") Gina lost weight.

"But when I started admitting to myself I’ve lost the battle (after many attempts to save the marriage), things began turning okay again.

It wasn’t easy, she tells you. But like the knocked-out pugilist in the ring, Gina just had to throw in the towel.

It was then that she decided to pick up the pieces and mend her lost self-esteem. The first step, Gina figured out, was looking good. That, with her deep faith in God, pulled her through.

Today, this mother of three (Ryan, 24; Jeffrey, 18 and AJ, 16) has her life all figured out.

"I have learned to love myself," she begins. Unlike before, Gina would think of family expenses first before indulging herself. Today, with the boys grown up and ready to lead lives of their own, she feels less guilty about spending on say, a Marie France slimming program to boost her self-esteem.

The Gina who had to work to the bone to fend for her then young brood during one of her earlier separations with Michael, is no more.

The house has been bought, Ryan is turning out to be a promising heir-apparent, courtesy of Industriya, a short film he just directed, and his brothers are not giving their parents any headache.

"My sons know what they want in life," the proud mother crows.

Gina scolded Ryan only once, when she found out he was smoking. But otherwise, her eldest is fine.

Sure she has her fears. What mother doesn’t? When Ryan and Jeffrey turned 17, Gina went down on her knees and asked God that they won’t get a girl pregnant. At least not yet. Her wishes were granted.

"Michael became a father at 17," she refreshes your memory.

Today, she’s as free as a bird "to choose what time I will wake up in the morning," or "to go out with friends" (like Ana Marin with whom Gina will spend Christmas Day with).

Gina enjoys the same kind of freedom in her career. The award-winning actress also directs, and doesn’t mind working with budding talents not as gifted as she is, as long as they give their best on the set.

She was supposed to direct the Lorna Tolentino-starrer Abakada Ina, except that the pressures of a suddenly approaching playdate got in the way.

As director, Gina is drawn to character-driven stories, those powered by themes on relationships, rather than horror films, whose heart and soul lie in the plot. "I don’t know how to terrify the audience," she admits.

Plans to settle down permanently in the US are still there, albeit in modified form. Since Michael was diagnosed with Hepatitis C months back, the plans are now confined to her and her sons.

"We can go there any time," Gina relates.

Yes, she volunteered to take care of Michael when he tested positive for Hepatitis C, a discovery that came by accident because Gina then needed a blood transfusion from him due to low hermoglobin count (it was Ryan who donated blood instead). But Michael refused her thrice.

"Maybe he (Michael) wants to prove he can take care of himself," muses Gina.

Let it not be said though, that she was a neglectful wife.

"I was with Michael when we sought a second opinion. I was there at the time he was starting treatment," she clarifies for the record.

"It was a blessing in disguise, because the disease was discovered at its earliest stage. Usually, you find out that you have Hepatitis C only when your liver is damaged. Michael’s liver is intact," reports Gina.

The separated couple will spend the holidays apart, with the children (they all live with Gina) keeping their father company on Christmas Day, and going back to their mom on New Year’s Day.

If this new scheme of things bothers Gina at all, she doesn’t show it. Storm-battered since she turned young wife and mother, the former child actress has learned to roll with the punches and damn the torpedoes since way back when. What’s another storm to weather, and come out of, unscathed, again?