RIP Jaime Picornell of Cebu Philippines

I knew Jaime all my life, because Cebu in the 1950s-1960s was small and fam­i­lies knew one anoth­er. I spent more time with him dur­ing my teenage years. He was close to my broth­er and his wife (Jess and Tere­si­ta Manguer­ra), and was also very close to my sis­ter Ana Manguer­ra and cousin Chick­ie Fer­aren. He was also Mama’s dear friend. He used to vis­it us for merien­da or din­ner and regale us (in the most ani­mat­ed way) with sto­ries about the per­son­al­i­ties of Cebu. He was a great sto­ry­teller, writer, teacher, busi­ness­man, and he also served as the Con­sul of the Span­ish Con­sulate in Cebu.

He was a stead­fast friend, whom we could call on at any time to chat or go out with, or to cry on his shoulder.

When he was young, he used to send us into hys­ter­ics laugh­ing at this sto­ries. He mel­lowed out as he got old­er but he always had sto­ries. He loved sto­ries, espe­cial­ly about Cebu. He wrote about Cebu and the peo­ple of Cebu in his columns. He was in fact a kind of his­to­ri­an for Cebu, and if you need­ed any infor­ma­tion about Cebuano his­to­ry or per­son­al­i­ty, he could give it to you.

I have many sto­ries about Jaime, and I’ll have to write some­thing longer lat­er on. All I want to say now is that I am heart­bro­ken as his fam­i­ly and friends are. We will miss him. Rest in Christ’s peace, Jaime.

PS: The pic­tures date from 2019 to as ear­ly as 1969.

Seat­ed l‑r: Ter­ry Manguer­ra, Cecil­ia Brainard, Jaime Picornell; 

Stand­ing l‑r; Louie Nacor­da, Gavin Bagares, Guest, Jobers Bersales

clock­wise from l: Nina Briones Blan­co, Cecil­ia Brainard, Ching­gay Utzur­rum, Ter­ry Manguer­ra, Tina Escano Unchuan, Chona Bernad, Cecil­ia Picor­nell, Jaime Picor­nell, Mar­ilou Chiongbian

l‑r: Jaime Picor­nell, Cecil­ia Brainard, Helen Misa, Ed Misa