Activist-scriptwriter Bibeth Orteza Siguion-Reyna refused to be emotional about battling Stage 3 breast cancer so that her son Rafa, then a teenager, grew up believing people beat it like the common cold.
In fact, Rafa realized how serious his mother’s condition was only years later when he watched the film “50/50” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Gordon-Levitt’s character had Stage 3 cancer, a malignant tumor in his spine.
“My mom’s case didn’t feel like ‘50/50’ to me,” Rafa said. “We didn’t even know the extent of her sickness. We got only positive energy from her. I think it was by choice. She decided not to stress us out.”
Mother and son will be among the survivors and kin who will walk the ramp on Oct. 13 this year at Raffles Makati Hotel for “FashionCanServe,” the fundraiser of ICanServe, the nonprofit that advocates early breast cancer detection.
Siguion-Reyna’s breast cancer was detected in late 2004. At first, she thought the lethargy was caused by Fernando Poe Jr.’s defeat in the presidential election. She was an avid supporter.
“My right breast was always sluggish, it would move really slow when I shifted position in bed. Like it had a mind of its own,” she recalled.
Initial tests were negative, but Siguion-Reyna instinctively knew something was amiss. A test done in a small diagnostic clinic in Makati City showed a “shadow” in her right armpit.
“Lord, take care of me,” she muttered. Soon after, friend Kitchie Benedicto volunteered her nephew-in-law to be Siguion-Reyna’s medical manager. The doctor, in turn, recommended a surgeon from San Juan Medical Center.
Less scared
Meanwhile, her oncologist turned out to be a classmate of her husband Carlitos Siguion-Reyna.
“I got less scared,” she said.
She then buckled down to work writing the script for the award-winning comedy top-grosser “Enteng Kabisote 2” while enduring the ravages of chemotherapy in 2005.
“That time, I was very grateful for my association with (the film’s lead actor) Vic Sotto, because he never got any other writer for his movie scripts,” she said.
Sotto also commissioned her to write the scripts for the special Lenten Week presentations of the noontime show “Eat Bulaga.”
She even had time to attend a rally against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo—a scene shown on live TV that prompted her doctor to threaten to send an ambulance if she did not step off the stage.
Rafa, meanwhile, said there was no noticeable change in his mom’s work ethic.
“She kept writing scripts,” he noted. “She just spent a lot of time in chemotherapy.”
Chemotherapy may have had its adverse side effects, but it did not kill Siguion-Reyna’s comedic sense.
One incident that Rafa remembers very well was about a traffic enforcer of the Metro Manila Development Authority flagging down their vehicle when it made a wrong turn on their way to a chemotherapy session.
Siguion-Reyna pulled her wig down and shouted, “May sakit ako! Pupunta ako sa ospital!”
“We were so embarrassed,” Rafa said mockingly.
Perhaps it was the choice to turn to whatever was funny that helped the family.
“Rafa makes it his business to annoy his mother first thing in the morning,” Siguion-Reyna pointed out with a sigh. “I would ask him, ‘Rafa, do you love me?’ and he would say, ‘No.’”
The mother also noted that Rafa, husband Carlitos and daughter Sarah “worried about me only briefly.”
After her mastectomy, the family flew to New York for consultation with doctors. But first, the patient needed to recover from jet lag to avoid complications.
Siguion-Reyna said family members “treated me like a queen” while she was recovering from fatigue.
“I would get a glass from the cupboard and somebody would pour water in my glass. I would pull out a chair and somebody would rush to help me,” she said.
Short-lived royal treatment
The royal treatment was short-lived, however.
“When the doctor congratulated me following a NED (no evidence of disease) status, we had lunch. By 2 p.m., I found myself clinging to the bathroom wall because they had all left as soon as they found out I was okay. Iniwan na ako,” Siguion-Reyna said, prompting a guffaw from her son.
Another time, she noticed that Carlitos would insist on leaving her at the lobby of wherever their destination was—the movie theater, the hotel—and park the car by himself.
“Ako naman, I was so moved. The day we were going to buy Christmas gifts in advance, I insisted on going to the parking lot with him. I even prepared a speech about how he’d been a really good husband, ganyan-ganyan. He leans on the driver’s seat, his hands at the wheel. ‘Mama, kasi ang bagal mong maglakad,’” Siguion-Reyna recalled.
The writer still wears different-colored, unmatched shoes as a statement. On the day of this interview, she wore canvas slip-ons—one red and one blue—to remind herself not to take life too seriously.
“You can’t bluff spirituality” was another lesson she learned. But even the Lord’s assurance that everything would be all right had its funny side.
Two days after her mastectomy, Siguion-Reyna insisted on a shower alone in the hospital bathroom instead of being assisted by a nurse.
“As a writer, akala ko God manifests a la ‘Sound of Music.’ But no! I was shampooing, my head was down and I could even see the bed pan, then I sensed a flash of white light and a voice telling me ‘All will be well,’” she said.
“Sa banyo ng Makati Med! It wasn’t a great cinema moment,” she stressed.
“But I felt the love of family and friends. Tito Dolphy, Susan Roces and FPJ visited me in the hospital. Peque Gallaga said something about being an atheist for the longest time but making peace with God because he was praying for me,” she remarked.
“All of a sudden you realize the meaning of ‘Even when I walk through the Valley of Death, I fear no evil… ’ You’re glad for family and friends surrounding you although some of them can be really annoying,” she added, while looking lovingly at her son.
