A visit with Kaye

With the government focusing on the Nida Blanca murder case once again, the slain actress’ only daughter, Kaye Torres, is very much in the news once more – albeit quite reluctantly.

After dabbling in show business for a while – as an Iskul Bukol mainstay and Saturday edition co-host of Eat Bulaga – Kaye decided public life was not for her so she remained a private citizen for the longest time. The violent death of her mother changed all that. Now, she has to face TV cameras and grant interviews – which are often a chore for someone like her who treasures nothing more in this world than her privacy.

Actually, this is not the first time Kaye became the focus of national attention. Sometime in the mid ’60s, talk went around that Nida Blanca’s young daughter – her unica hija – had developed H-fever (a deadlier type of malaria) and was in such a bad state she was said blood oozing from her ears and nose. The following week, she had died – so reports went.

Since this was the era before the advent of movie talk shows (and news programs didn’t bother with showbiz news back then), the public had no way of confirming this piece of bad news. Nida Blanca had a weekly TV show, all right. But The Nida-Nestor Show was a program that opened with a dance number and segued into a comic skit. When the rumors about the young Kaye Torres got so bad to the point that she had already been quietly laid to rest in one of the more absurd versions, Nida requested ABS-CBN management to alter her show’s format a little bit to allow her to clarify this bit of ugly news.

In less than a minute, right after the comedy skit, Nida managed to clear the issues and gave a statement that her daughter was safe at home – and alive – and that there was no need for the public to worry about the health of Kaye Torres.

Since Nida’s brutal death last Nov. 7, 2001, however, the public has started worrying again about Kaye. How is she coping with the death of her mother? Isn’t she bother by the fact that it is taking the government forever to solve her mother’s murder? What about her own security? Does she feel safe considering that her mother’s killer(s) are still on the loose?

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to visit Kaye Torres at her home in Nathan Road in White Plains, Quezon City. The first thing I noticed were the iron grills that now bar the facade, which – before Nida’s death – practically jutted out into the street as if to say welcome. But, of course, you understand why Kaye has decided to reinforce security.

The garden at the side of the house, which has mostly potted plants and was once paradise to Nida, is still well-kept – this time by a full-time gardener now under Kaye’s employ.

Inside the house, the den had noticeably been given a facelift – with Nida’s movie memorabilia all in place. I look at once for the three trophies received by the late actress from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino and they are all there – newly-polished and neatly standing on a ledge.

Kaye is obviously bent on preserving her mother’s memory because everything in the Nathan Road home reminds you of Nida Blanca.

In stark contrast, there is nothing in this house at the moment that would remind you of a former resident there – Rod Strunk. As we all know, Strunk is now in the US and the things he left behind in the Nathan Road house had been put "at the back" – "way at the back," as Kaye puts it. At least, she didn’t throw them away.

Kaye is reluctant to speak about Rod. But there is no hiding her disdain for him. Even Nida’s mother, Inocencia Acueza, obviously isn’t too fond of Strunk. Still coherent at 88, Nanay Inocencia (she refuses to be called Lola) admits she only tried to be nice to him for the sake of Nida.

Nanay Inocencia still cries every time she is reminded of daughter Nida, whom she misses so much. To her relief, Kaye is now always by her side. "Mabait na bata ’yan," she says, looking fondly at her granddaughter.

But no, Kaye no longer allows her grandmother to go to the casino to play slot machine. Nanay Inocencia now entertains herself mostly by playing bingo with her grandnieces at home in Nathan Road. During my visit there, in fact, she is pleased to report to me that she won P60 in that day’s bingo game.

Although Nida, who provided so much life, love and laughter in this Nathan Road home is no longer there, life goes on for the people she left behind. Fortunately, Kaye is there to put things back together – and in order. It’s not exactly a task she had planned to do. After all, she already had established a life for herself in the US. But like the sometimes unwelcome task of facing the prying press, this is something she has to do for her mother who, unfortunately, was taken away from her so suddenly... so brutally.