A Christmas story (San Nicolas)

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

A Christmas story
Sunday, 12 22, 2005

San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte in the 1940s was the typical town in the Castillian mold: a massive brick church at the center, from which radiated in orderly fashion old brick houses. A kilometer away from the center of the town were ricefields and toward its border with nearby Batac were the hills of Billoca.

The church had the biggest bell in the province, installed in the tallest bell tower.

And around these structures revolves the story that has been told and retold in San Nicolas.

Emerson had two girls born by his wife Concepcion before he joined the Army to wage war against the Japanese. He survived the Death March, but when he was well enough again, he joined the guerrillas operating in north Luzon.

And so it came to pass that a week from the start of the Misa de Gallo, Emerson found himself dodging gingerly, together with Santiago, his brother-in-law, the Japanese sentries over the stretch of Luna, La Union, to Batac. They had braved the trek just to be with their families once again for Christmas. For Emerson, there was the expectation that by Christmas he would have another child by Concepcion.

At the hills of Billoca on the eve of the start of the dawn mass, Emerson and Santiago had difficulty traversing the strong waters of the river that separates San Nicolas from Batac. They were forced to take the road, and right smack into a Japanese sentry at the boundary. They were naturally stopped, and searched, and detained.

Emerson pleaded to be set free, as he had to see his wife who was about to give birth, and besides it was Christmas. The Japanese would not budge, no matter how Emerson pleaded.

Just as the first peal of the big bell of San Nicolas, signaling the start of Misa de Gallo, reached Billoca three kilometers away, the Japanese sentry knelt facing San Nicolas, and appeared to cry. And cry he did, and motioned to Emerson and Santiago that they may now go.

Emerson and Santiago were astonished at the turn of events. They approached the Japanese to ask what was happening. The Japanese motioned to the sky, pointing to something Emerson and Santiago could not seem to figure out.

For sure, the Japanese had seen something that convinced him to turn from an unbending jailor to a magnanimous soldier.

Emerson and Santiago proceeded to San Nicolas, arriving just in time for the birth of Emerson’s third daughter, at exactly the same time the bell of San Nicolas signaled the end of the dawn mass.

The Japanese motored to the center of the town on that same day, to visit Emerson. The Japanese was now with an interpreter. Inside the house of Emerson, the Japanese motioned to an image of Our Lady of Fatima adorning the center of the room of the house. The statue had been given by Emerson’s mother when he got married to Concepcion.

It was Our Lady of Fatima that the Japanese had seen, with a toddler on her feet.

A miracle had happened, and it happened on Christmastime.

Emerson was my father. The child born to Concepcion, his wife, is my sister Imelda. The statue of Our Lady of Fatima now adorns my house.

To this day, Dec. 16 is a blessed day in San Nicolas. It marks the day when Our Lady of Fatima and the Child Jesus brought their message of peace and reconciliation to a town that had endured the ravages of war. From that day on, the Japanese were to act very much unlike a harsh occupying army, and they treated all San Nicolaneos kindly, like their kind.

Naimbag nga pascua yo amin!

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