Richard now seeing stars up there

How dare you die on my birthday, Richard. Ganyan ka! Of all the 365 days of this Year of the Dog...

Friday, April 21, before midnight, I got the numbing text message from photographer Jacinto Tee: Richard Chen passed away at 11:23 tonight. That direct... so straightforward, so straight to the point. But what impact those seven words delivered!

Immediately, I forwarded the grim message to other friends of Richard.

Susan Roces texted back, "You know why Richard ‘chose’ to die on your birthday? So he will always be remembered. Just like how Doc Perez died on my birthday, July 28." (Doc Perez was Dr. Jose R. Perez, starmaker of Sampaguita Pictures who discovered Susan.)

Because he was such a good-natured, self-effacing, unpretentious and generous person, Richard’s (unexpected) demise shocked people and stars who know him.

"He took good care of me when we shot Mano Po in China," said Maricel Soriano.

Just like he did to every star (almost all of them, from the superstars to the aspiring stars) – take good care of them, that is. Richard didn’t just take the stars’ pictures, spending his own money (as a contributing photographer, he didn’t expect to be paid; photography was only a hobby to him), he would gift them with an album-ful of their pictures, gratis et amore. He did it because he loved to do it and not because the stars asked for it, delivered to the doorsteps of the stars’ home by Richard himself, driving his own BMW where, sometimes, he would nod in drowsiness when stuck in a traffic jam – right on the steering wheel!

"I saw him do it once," said Malaya’s Mario Hernando who got stuck at an intersection beside Richard’s car. "I had to yell at him na ‘go’ na when the traffic light turned green."

"I have never known a photographer like him," said Douglas Quijano. "He’s one of a kind. I don’t think we’ll ever see one like him again."

Not in a long, long time. Maybe not ever.

As I said, photography was not Richard’s means of livelihood. He worked for a heavy-equipment company on Ongpin Street but he was ever available for a pictorial, dropping whatever he was doing in the office when you called him for an "assignment." He was so easy to deal with (no "star complex" at all even if he had become a star in his own right), never showing up late for an appointment nor standing up a star (big or small), that’s why the stars felt free to go direct to him. Richard was accessible, a friend of everybody, a friend of every star, who had no mean bone in his roly-poly body and, as one star aptly put it, "walang inggit sa katawan."

"Is the Richard Chen I saw in the obituary in The STAR today (yesterday) the Richard Chen that we know?" asked Dr. Nellie Yu in a text message. Yes, I told Nellie. The Richard Chen that we know.

Richard left the way he came into The STAR – quietly and unexpectedly, as if, like the cowboy in a familiar scene in Hollywood westerns, astride a horse toward the sunset not with his boots on but with his expensive, high-tech cameras slung on his shoulders.

It was a Saturday (no office back then when The STAR didn’t have a Sunday issue) afternoon in July 1986 when Tita Betty (Go-Belmonte, my late boss) politely interrupted my pounding of the typewriter. "I have some nice photos for your page," Tita Betty said. "They were taken by an amateur photographer. His name is Richard Chen. I’ll send him over to you."

Since then, Richard had never left The STAR. Like most of us in the company, he grew older with The STAR and was mighty proud to be identified with the paper (he carried an ID to prove it). It didn’t take long before Richard became everybody’s favorite, especially of Regal matriarch Mother Lily who treated Richard like a brother.

Oh, well. Richard did leave, not only The STAR but the world.

I got the jolting text message at noon on March 19, a Sunday, from Jacinto Tee: "Richard suffered a stroke; he’s at the Manila Doctors Hospital."

When I saw him that same afternoon at the ER (Emergency Room), my knees wobbled. Richard was asleep, attached to a ventilator, with a tube stuck into his nose, another one into his left arm and still another one into his right arm. He reminded me of my mother at the ICU of another hospital four days before she died, that’s why I felt weak.

Anyway, Richard spent more than one week at the ICU. When he woke up, he was moved to a private room but had to be rushed back to the ICU when he felt dizzy. According to the doctor, 15 cc of blood clotted in Richard’s brain and it could be cured with medication (no need for surgery, thank heavens!). Besides Mother Lily, among those who cheered up Richard at the hospital were Vivian Sarabia, Ethel Ramos, Dolor Guevarra, Shirley Kuan and Maridol Rañoa-Bismark.

Richard went home Saturday last week (with only four cc of blood clot in his brain). Friday morning, on my birthday, he was taken ill (pulmonary infection or something) and he was rushed to the nearby Cardinal Santos Medical Center where he died 10 hours later. He was 54.

Not one to intrude into the privacy of my friends (unless they open up or volunteer personal information), I learned a bit about Richard’s background from his sister Dolly (who acted as his "nurse") when I saw Richard inside the box. Dolly said that they (10 brothers and sisters) lost their parents early, so they had to fend for themselves. "Richard started working at the age of 14," said Dolly. In short, Richard is a self-made man, reaching his stature through hard work, determination and honest service.

At the funeral parlor, I didn’t go near Richard because I wanted to remember him with his eyes open, with a friendly smile on his face, with his high-tech cameras ready for his starry shots... just like he looked on March 15, four days before he suffered a stroke, when we did a pictorial with StarStruck winners Marky Cielo, Jackie Rice, Iwa Moto and Gian Carlos at the Placemat (Pinoy restaurant, on Tomas Morato Ave., Quezon City).

Okay, Richard. Good night and good luck. Please don’t forget to bring your cameras. The stars, led by FPJ, are there where you’re going. Take good shots, as usual, and keep the albums (for posterity? for eternity?) for future use.

You are such a good man, Richard, and that’s how we will remember you.

Have a safe trip!

(Note: Richard’s remains lie in state at the Funeraria Paz on Araneta Ave., Quezon City. He will be cremated on Wednesday morning, April 26, after a Mass at 11 o’clock.)

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