How boots & King keep the flame of love burning
Boots Anson Roa-Rodrigo and husband lawyer King Rodrigo (right) during their pre-nup pictorial five years ago and (far right) during Boots’ recent post-birthday lunch with friend journalists at Club Filipino
When Boots Anson Roa-Rodrigo turned 74 last Jan. 30, she and her husband, lawyer King Rodrigo, celebrated by dancing cheekto-cheek to Spanish music while having a candle-lit dinner of garlic tuyo, sardines and scrambled eggs downed by vintage brandy. It was the couple’s way of keeping the flame of love burning in their five-year marriage, proving that love is indeed more comfortable the second time you fall.
“We were at our weekend house in Tagaytay and there was a Chinese Dragon Festival at the Clubhouse as an advance welcome for the Year of the Pig (that started Feb. 5),” Boots told their friend journalists at the Club Filipino where she and King hosted a postbirthday lunch, with King’s sister Pempe and Boots’ sister Vicky present. “We were in no mood to join the festival so we decided to spend a quiet evening at home.” Oh, so romantic, wasn’t it? They planned to have a bigger party on June 14 to celebrate two events: King’s 80th birthday and their fifth wedding anniversary. “We call it our 60th ‘monthsary,’ as the millennials would call it,” said King.
But wait, what was Boots’ birthday wish (that is, if she hasn’t gotten tired of making such wishes for the past 73 years)?
“Nothing really,” admitted Boots. “I have so much to be thankful for, so maybe just a prayer that I deserve all the blessings I am getting,” adding with a laugh, “I’m thinking of memorizing Kuh Ledesma’s song Paano
Kita Mapasasalamatan and sing it to King.” Sense of humor is one of the things that enliven and cement this union of two seniors coming from long and happy marriages that ended when their espouses passed on. Boots and King are fun to be with because they can actually laugh at themselves and at their own jokes. They are funny in their recollection of their wedding night.
“We were under the delusion that we could still have a baby,” narrated King. “We told friends that we would name our son John but somebody suggested that we should name it John-John so that at the crucial moment when I would ask, ‘Saan-saan?’ she would say, ‘John, John!’ When I started to hug her (niyapos ko), she suddenly screamed,
‘Aray!’ So I said, ‘Wala pa, not yet!’ She started laughing and said, “Naumpog ako. I hit my head against the headboard.’”
Added King, a humorist like his lawyerbrother Boogie, “There are many ways of making love,” demonstrating one of them by having his palm touch that of Boots’ and together shouting (gently now), “Appear!!! Every time we kid each other, ‘Tonight is the tonight!,’ we do that ‘Appear!’ act. Making love na sa amin ‘yon.”
Just for fun, Boots once joined her friends do the Santa Clara dance in Obando, Bulacan, even if, as she confessed (needless to say), “The factory is closed but the playground is open,” and then she laughed and laughed. The truth is that, as you probably know, the thing between Boots and King is companionship and, of course not, ehem, procreation.
But, added Boots posthaste, they do enjoy doing things together, such as reading in bed together before turning in (the Bible for King and something light for Boots) and, brace yourselves, showering together.
“We tried bubble-bathing together twice,” shared King, “once in Bangkok and then in Hong Kong. The bathtub was quite small for us, so we ended up sliding over each other trying to find the right position and then having a hard time getting up. The whole bathtub was so slippery.”
It helps that they are both busy, King with “lawyering” and Boots with TV/movie assignments.
“Otherwise,” said King, “if you retire, what would you do, just look at each other, mag-titinginan na lang kayo? With us, ang dami naming napag-kukuwentuhan so there’s never any dull moment between us.”
So happy are they together that they are bent on celebrating their silver wedding anniversary, no kidding!
“You are all invited,” said Boots, then she and King started laughing together.
Before we bade them goodbye, we playfully asked the couple to kiss and they obliged not once, not twice but thrice.
(Postscript: To celebrate her 75th birthday, Boots will publish her autobiography titled
Boots On. She promised that it would be a tellall book, so we suggested a subtitle, What you don’t but should know about the virginal Boots. Something to look forward to, isn’t it?)