I stayed at our doorstep to make bantay our lighted candle. I didn’t realize this was a Bicolano custom to commemorate All Souls Day. Asking around, my fireman Roger from Nueva Ecija did the same at his doorstep, but Alvin my lawyer from Batangas lit candles in each room of their home. In Romblon the hunt for a seahorse was underway a month or so before Nov. 1. A seahorse, Harold said, is hung on the front door or a window to ward off evil spirits from entering a house. Common sense tells me candles and prayers for numerous believers keep out ghostly apparitions from entering homes and burning candles to meet the departed at our front doors are used to remind our beloveds of their status, but they’re remembered.
Writing about doorsteps, I had a friend from Zamboanga whose husband had philandering habits. One rainy evening she was riding in a pedicab and saw an elderly gentleman who was soaking wet in the street. Seeing him in that condition she took pity and asked him if he wanted to ride with her, she’d drop him at his doorstep. The old man consented. He was a perceptive, aged gent because he asked her, “Do you have a problem?” Affirmative was her reply, and he said, “See me at my home tomorrow and I will give you advice.”
Intrigued, she went to him the next day. He told her to put the piece of clothing she had brought with her, her husband’s T-shirt, under her doorstep. He prayed over the shirt and sent her home. While her husband was out of the house she hammered away a portion of her cemented doorstep, placed the item inside the step and re-cemented it. After two months he said to her that he could no longer get an erection and asked her to please remove the spell that was hampering his masculinity. Off she went to the old man and said her husband had suffered enough. Done with that, while with her husband was out of the house again, she removed the T-shirt from her doorstep and never heard another complaint from her husband. (E-mail me if you want to meet the old man; I will try to locate him from you.)
Another story concerning doorsteps: my mother had a friend whose husband had disappeared for 10 years. In that span of time she found a wonderful new husband and lived with him for seven years. Mommy said to me that Philippine law declares, “After an absence of seven years, it being unknown whether or not the absentee still lives, he shall be presumed dead for all purposes, except for those of succession.” Well, there was a knock at the woman’s door one day. Opening it, she got a surprise: there he was, her “departed” husband. The end result was that the lady fainted but continued to live with her new husband.
Another similar story is a about a lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary. While enforcing fishery laws he pursued and apprehended a Chinese fishing vessel. Unaware that the fishermen were black-belt fighters, the PC’s firearms were grabbed by the fishermen and two of the lieutenant’s men were thrown into the sea off Batanes. The lieutenant was captured and brought to Taiwan. Declared MIA (missing in action), his wife was paid all the benefits due her husband by the Philippine Constabulary. After 10 years he appeared on their doorstep, but she was now no longer his Mrs. X, but Mrs. Y instead.
Let’s go back to Philippine law. It says, “The following persons shall be presumed dead for all purposes, including the division of the estate among the heirs: if a person on board a vessel is lost during a sea voyage, or an airplane which is missing, as a man who has not been heard for four years since the loss of the vessel or airplane and a person in the Armed Forces who has taken part in the war and has been missing for four years, and a person who has been in danger of death under other circumstances and his existence has not been known for four years.”
Women can hold steadfast to a promise, but there may come a time that she can be a perfect heroine no longer. A woman from Labason, Zamboanga del Norte went to see my judge friend for the purpose of getting married, not having seen her husband for seven years. Judge Marianing issued a court order affirming that this lady was telling the truth, and she was able to marry her new love. There is a twist to this happy ending, though: one day her husband was shot and the authorities never found the assailant.
I always keep it in mind not to stumble while going down my front doorsteps. It’s supposed to be unlucky. I know that for a fact. Peping and I took an early evening flight for the US. Jubilant about our departure, at 9 p.m. one evening, my daughter Josephine went running out of the house to go to a movie with her high school classmates without our permission. She stumbled on our front doorstep, the second of four steps, and her Ate Liaa brought her to Makati Medical Center. She had broken her ankle and remained in crutches for two months. Whether stumbling over a doorstep when leaving one’s house is considered a bad omen or not, many would choose to read that sign as a warning and spend the day at home. Well, you could just put salt on the doorstep of your house and no evil shall enter your home and you need not wait for Nov. 1 to do that.
Ultimately, happiness is a matter of choice. Thank God for free will.