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Prewar Manila was a vibrant city filled with grand visions and ambitions. Philippine Independence was in the air. It was second only to Shanghai, China in terms of modernity, progress, and glamour. Throughout the city, public parks were aplenty, fountains gurgled, great trees arched over the avenues, and the people had reasons to enjoy the outdoors. Many new buildings were being constructed. All kinds of American and European luxury goods were available at the Escolta. Everyone was well–dressed, be they businessmen or vendors. Cleanliness was everywhere. Optimism was the norm. It was peaceful, disciplined, and progressive. Manila was a beautiful city that could compare to the world capitals. Social gatherings were frequent, and famous ladies like Angela Calvo Olgado–Zóbel, Victoria Ledesma Lopez–Araneta, and the young Madrigal–Paterno sisters Macaria (“Nena”), Paz (“Pacita”), Josefina (“Pinang”), and Consuelo (“Chito”) gave parties left and right (Maria Luisa “Ising” was too young). It was a world of affluence, traditions, elegance, refinement, principles, and manners. And it was in that golden world where Nene Tuason–Quimson was born. Nene recalled comically that her nickname should have been Nena, although there was little difference between the two. Her parents Pindong and Nening were expecting a baby boy to be a younger brother to their elder son Boy (Jose Ramon), but a baby girl came out. As an odd compromise, she was named Nene instead of Nena. She and her three siblings Lita, Boy, and Boling grew up in the prewar residence of her parents Pindong and Nening on Santol street in Santa Mesa, on land that had long belonged to the very old Tuason clan. The area was dotted with handsome prewar residences of Tuason relatives and other prominent Manila families. The Tuason–del Rosario house was in the 1930s Modern style that could have been designed by Juan Nakpil or Pablo Antonio. In 1959, her father Pindong Tuason transferred his family to the postwar La Vista development in Quezon city, on land that was also ancestral Tuason. It was a modern residence that had sloping gardens and pleasant views of the Marikina valley where, yes, there was also ancestral Tuason land. Pindong’s and Nening’s youngest daughter was educated at the exclusive Saint Scholastica’s College operated by Belgian and German Benedictine nuns in Manila. The all–girls school had a sterling reputation for producing intelligent, diligent, and hardworking young ladies. After graduating from high school, Nene and younger sister Boling were taken by their parents Pindong and Nening abroad for 18 months/1 ½ years; 8 months were spent in New York city for Pindong’s eye operation and recovery. In 1953, fresh out of high school at only 17 years old, Nene married her beau John (Juan Tuason Quimson), who was ten years older than she. They would be together for 35 years until John’s passing in 1988. Among the Tuason cousins, Nene was closest to her first cousin Chuchay (Carmen Dos Remedios Tuason), the onetime Miss Philippines, daughter of Pindong’s younger brother Celso Zaragoza Tuason and Rosario Dos Remedios. Nene’s close friends were invariably DBF “de buena familia” daughters: Menchu de las Alas–Concepcion, Judy Araneta–Roxas, Marilen Espiritu, Buda de Leon, Maridol Sy–Quia – Mabanta, Meldy de la Paz Ongsiako–Cojuangco, Nelly Tionko Lacson– Gonzalez, and Chito Paterno Madrigal. (Nelly Tionko Lacson was Mrs Manuel Juan Tuason Gonzalez [“Dindo”] ); Manuel Juan Tuason Gonzalez [“Dindo”] was Juan Tuason Quimson’s [“John”] maternal first cousin, their mothers Paz Gonzalez Tuason–Gonzalez [“Paching”] and Consuelo Gonzalez Tuason–Quimson–Casas [“Tutung”] were sisters). After the 1986 Revolution, President Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco–Aquino appointed John Tuason Quimson as Ambassador to the Court of Saint James in London. It was an appropriate and laudable decision by Cory, as social position, high education, and personal elegance were qualities frankly valued by the conservative British establishment. John was a perfect choice for the Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, two and a half years into his tenure in 1988, John passed away. After her husband John’s untimely passing on 12 November 1988, with all her children grown with their own families, and an “empty nest,” Nene the widow finally decided that she would just enjoy life, have more time with friends, travel, and spend more time at her favorite places. It was at that time that she set up bases in Chelsea, London, Ascot, New York, and Boca Raton. Those early widowhood years had Nene constantly on the move, and it would be her way of life for the next thirty years. Nene was a lady who took pride in her homes and gardens. She was “house proud” and consequently had high standards regarding domestic upkeep. She had a loyal core staff whom she deployed wherever needed. What was interesting was that, as she deployed her local staff abroad, conversely, she employed her foreign staff in Manila. A Tuason granddaughter once comically described the Tuason way of life as: “Popeye y comer, comer y Popeye!” meaning “Smoke and eat, eat and smoke!” or “Tobacco and food, food and tobacco!” (Popeye referring to Popeye the Sailor Man the 1929 cartoon character perennially smoking a pipe and eating a can of spinach). Nene went much further than her Tuason elders and laid her tables not only with wonderful food but also beautiful chinaware, glassware, silverware, and linens. She said she liked to cook, or better yet, she liked to supervise the cooking. While her breakfast tables were informal even casual, her lunch and dinner tables were invariably formal and set in the English style with layered chinaware and an array of silverware and glassware per place setting. Like her father Pindong Tuason, who liked to take his “La Quadra” (The Square) a group of four (often more, so it was also “La Cuadra” The Horse Stable) Wack–Wack golf buddies who were mostly his family and Tuason–Legarda–Prieto– Valdes relatives to travel everywhere (his younger brother Toto [Severo Zaragoza Tuason] and his first cousins Manoling and Chino [Manuel and Jose Mariano Legarda Valdes], the equally generous and gallant Nene took her friends, relatives, and family on several trips for company and fun as well. (Like many Filipinos, Pindong and his brothers Nicasio, Celso, Toto, and sister Lulu [elder sister Carmencita passed away young] enjoyed many happy times postwar from the 1950s–60s. They started dying off in the 1970s. Pindong passed away in 1982.) Golf was an inherited passion. Nene recalled: “My siblings and I practically grew up on a golf course, as my parents (Pindong and Nening) were always playing it.” During their younger years (1960s–70s), John and Nene used to play golf everyday at the MGC Manila Golf Club with Chito Madrigal and friends. It was a nice group. They would play in the daytime and there were wonderful dinners given nightly by various members of the group. Same group, different houses. Nene played golf for forty–three years of her young life but stopped when John died in 1988; she played from the age of 10 all the way to 53. She used to do brisk walking seven miles a day on and off the golf course. That was the reason for her slim figure. Bridge (or Contract Bridge), a trick–taking card game of skill, risk, and luck, was another inherited passion. “As a child of parents who played bridge, I also learned to play it.” Nene reminisced. Pindong and Nening Tuason were avid bridge players and their Philippine Bridge Club was headquartered at their JMT building. Nene continued: “My husband played it for twenty–three years (1988 – 23 = 1965) but I did not play due to my other commitments. But now, I guess I am taking it quite seriously. Our bridge team participated in the Pacific Open and Beijing Olympics followed by the first International Mind Sports Game tournament. It was a stiff competition and we did our best.” “Bridge, for me, is a kind of therapy. Isn’t it well–known that those who play bridge seldom get Alzheimer’s disease?” She was hoping that the 2012 Olympics in London would have a Bridge tournament and that she would be invited to represent the Philippines. Bridge took Nene everywhere. At a tournament of the Philippine Bridge Club in Medina, Seattle, she was introduced by her good friend, an English Lord, to none other than THE Bill Gates who was then a newbie at bridge. Like all Tuason women, she was good with her hands. She liked crafting: she did sewing, embroidery, crochet, needlework, and petit–point embroidery. As with everything Nene, her crafting hobbies took on a perceptibly royal air, as they were the very same pastimes of royal and aristocratic ladies in Europe and rich women in the United States. Like a true Tuason, she liked music. She liked playing the piano. When in New York, she frequently attended classical music and opera performances at the Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall. She even attended pop music concerts. The music of Michael Jackson and Madonna were not alien to her. She liked dancing. Disco music was not alien to her. She liked cooking. But she didn’t do it herself. She would instruct other people to do it for her, following her recipes. Nene’s principal philanthropy was The FWA – UK Filipina Women’s Association – United Kingdom, the charitable organization that she established with London–based Filipina friends in 1988. “It was the knowledge that there was no Philippine women’s organization in the UK and that it was time there was one, with the avowed aim of raising funds for the education of the underprivileged but deserving children in the Philippines, and of course, to uplift the image of the Filipino woman.” Nene explained. At that time, Filipina women in the UK were disparaged as mere domestic helpers of the Arabs and there was little regard for Filipina professionals. As the wife of the Philippine Ambassador, Nene sought to uplift the reputation and improve the general perception of all the Filipina women in the UK. And she succeeded beyond measure. “Education is the most important thing to give to the young people.” Nene declared about one of her charities. She was a donor to the Asian Cultural Council in New York. Not known to many, she supported many Filipino musical scholars quietly for many years. Among them, Hiyas Hila. Maria de los Angeles del Rosario Tuason (“Nene,” o 02 August 1935 – + 27 November 2021) was the youngest daughter of Jose Maria Zaragoza Tuason (“Pindong”) of the patrician Tuason family and Magdalena Locsin del Rosario (“Nening”) of the industrialist family that spawned the PHINMA conglomerate. Jose Maria Zaragoza Tuason (“Pindong,” +1982) and Magdalena Locsin del Rosario (“Nening,” +1968) had four children: Julia (“Lita”) passed away at 10 years old; Jose Ramon (“Boy”) married Mercedes Reinares Arrastia; Consuelo (“Boling”) married (1) Angel Heredia (2) Vicente Reyes; Maria de los Angeles (“Nene”) married Juan Tuason Quimson (“John”). Pindong Tuason was an entrepreneur extraordinaire, an excellent lawyer–businessman who inherited the legendary Tuason nose for business. At a time when many of his social peers were still managing and relying on their inherited haciendas, the forward–looking Pindong liquidated his inherited agricultural lands and real estate properties and invested the proceeds in corporate assets. As a direct result, he had seats on the boards of the country’s major corporations. An astute investor, Pindong was always on the lookout for the next best thing (Doubtless, he would have been fascinated by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk). A visionary, “JMT” (Jose Maria Tuason) was a force to reckon with in Philippine business. Even Pindong’s maternal first cousin, Salvador Zaragoza Araneta, himself a highly successful man, admired Pindong’s business savvy. Maria de los Angeles del Rosario Tuason married Juan Tuason Quimson (“John,” o 26 July 1925 – + 12 November 1988) on 11 February 1953 and they had six children: Consuelo (“Wito”), John (“Baby John”), Angeles (“Lita”), Ana Maria (“Annette”), Enrique, Jose Luis (“Joey”). Juan Tuason Quimson was the eldest son of Luis S Quimson (the first Filipino pilot) and Consuelo Gonzalez Tuason (“Tutung,” daughter of Pindong’s elder brother Juan Jose Tuason y de la Paz [“Tintong”] and Rosario Gonzalez [“Lolai”] of Cadiz, Spain). Consuelo Gonzalez Tuason–Quimson–Casas (“Tutung”) was the one who built the first structure of the Lourdes Hospital in Mandaluyong city in the late 1940s for her second husband Dr Carlos Casas and she later donated it to the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS). Nene’s eldest daughter Wito reminisces: “She was heaven and earth, fire and rain, yin and yang. At times. she was hard to figure out, hard to get on with. At other times she was a joy to be with and super fun, discoing with us as teenagers in Regine’s. Although she professed to be black and white in her beliefs she herself was a multi coloured rainbow - in personality, in fashion, in her choice of varied friends and in her many interests. Tiny though she was, she was a bigger than life figure and dominated my entire life landscape. She married at 17 yo and had me at 18 she was still a child herself barely an adult. And although like most mothers and daughters, we had our ups and downs she was my best friend, she was my phone pal we would talk to each other even 4 times a day, my chismis partner, my critic and my mentor. Mum I promise you it will surely be difficult to envision the future without someone like you by my side.” Nene’s elder son John remembers: “Mom was old school and there was a certain formality to her, a certain distance. One could not be a ‘cozy friend’ with her, she just wasn’t the kind. Even we kids couldn’t approach her out of the blue… there was a certain way that that had to be done. I guess she belonged to that conservative generation. You know, the perfect manners and distance and all. “She was always well–groomed and well–dressed as soon as she was out of her room, even in “pambahay” houseclothes at home. All the more whenever she was partying in town. “Life at home with Mom was organized. Breakfast was a casual affair with everything on the table or on the long cabinet at the side and pretty much ‘serve yourself.’ However, lunch and dinner were formal, dressy ones. You know, all those plates and glasses and cutlery and staff to move everything. That was how we lived everyday with Mom. “However, despite all the formalities, we kids knew she loved all of us unconditionally.” Nene Tuason–Quimson was among the very last of the patrician grandes dames of Manila. Nene Tuason–Quimson with her resources and style joined the likes of lawyer–businesswoman Chito Paterno Madrigal, the swanlike sylph Meldy de la Paz Ongsiako–Cojuangco, the impossibly chic Baby Araneta–Fores, and a very few others in the pantheon of the all–time great Filipina ladies (from prewar: Victoria Ledesma Lopez–Araneta, Pacita Ongsiako de los Reyes, Conching Chuidian Sunico). As the esteemed social columnist Maurice Arcache liked to say: “Beauty, Brains, Breeding, and Bucks!!!” It’s one thing to have an inheritance and it’s entirely another thing to have style. (Many heiresses and socialites do not have style.) But to have both is an amazing privilege granted to very few. It is not enough to marry into a fortune, one must be born to it, and then, one must develop the style commensurate to one’s resources in order to be regarded as one of the “social greats.” Tall order. There is no style where there are no resources, after all. And then the requisite heart of gold: Nene was a generous giver and had many charities but in true patrician fashion kept them mostly to herself. As Carolina Tuason y Gil de Sola de Zaragoza, another Tuason grande dame (daughter of Gonzalo Tuason y Patino and Isabel Gil de Sola, illegitimate daughter of Reina Isabel II de Espana), used to advise family members: “You know what you have, others don’t have to know.” In those respects, there were essentially no differences between the American legends Marjorie Merriweather Post and Doris Duke and the Filipinas Chito Paterno Madrigal and Nene Tuason–Quimson. A discussion on Filipina visual artists is lacking if one falls short of acquiring a profound understanding of their distinctive style and treatment of the subject matter. For instance, Pacita Abad cast her trademark on her trapunto works and Anita Magsaysay-Ho on her depiction of the beauty and resilience of the Filipino working women. Such is also the case for Betsy Westendorp. Specifically, she pursued her passion for painting orchids as if they were her lifeblood. Cid Reyes wrote: “Indeed, it is the orchid, with its wild delicacy and seductive surprise, that has become the starting point for a Westendorp trademark style.” In an interview with Reyes, Westendorp narrated how her lifelong passion for painting orchids began. The artist shared: “And the orchids— there is a place in Madrid, a greenhouse called Bourguignon. It’s a very famous flower shop. They have a greenhouse where they raise orchids. So, I asked, “Will you allow me to paint these orchids?” And they said yes. I painted there— right inside the greenhouse. “In Manila, there were friends of mine, Tonette and Linda Lagdameo, who were very involved with the Orchid Society. They had a magazine to come out. They asked me to do an orchid painting in their house. That was my first orchid painting here. And for that issue, BenCab also painted an orchid for them. And that started my relationship with the orchid.” It would not be an exaggeration if one would say that Betsy Westendorp treats flowers as if they were real humans. Westendorp said: “At the beginning, I had to paint on location so I can be in touch with the orchids. It’s like getting to know a person. With flowers, you have to know them also.” Westendorp captures the character and mood that emanates from the orchid. When gazing at Westendorp’s orchids, we are treated to a harmoniously executed pageant of colors, forms, and patterns. The work transforms into a physical stimulus that stirs up our sensory perception. One can perceive the calm wind seemingly caressing the petals; the vividly colored corollas and the cascading floral showers set against an azure backdrop resembling an unclouded sky, thus forming a visual spectacle; and the delightfully sweet fragrance that stirs up both nostalgia and optimism for better days. (A.M.) Westendorp’s works have exhibited much detail in creating scenes in classical and realist depictions of landscapes, portraits, and flora. This particular artwork of hers is an example of Westendorp’s style of adapting her influences into a beautiful rendition of English primroses. She focuses much on these details to emphasize the beauty of the flowers as they stand out from much of the canvas. The scene is almost melancholic, as the colors of the flowers blend with the background. Through her fine brushing techniques and detailed coloring dynamic, Westendorp creates this scene of a balance of fine details of beauty and sadness with her style of classical and realist elements to emphasize the subtle meaning behind the art piece. With intricate detail and skillful painting, Betsy Westendorp brings out the beauty of flora and fauna. Trained under a portrait painter at a young age, she would paint anything that caught her eye, starting with painting portraits of her family members. She later discovered that she had a fascination with working with portraits, which led her to painting for powerful and wealthy figures. Westendrop then grew a passion for painting landscapes and nature. This would bloom into being known for her work for painting the sunsets of Manila Bay and a variety of flowers. Westendorp awakes the sights and senses of the viewer with the rawness of the display of flowers. With that, the beauty of the flowers and her intrinsic painting methods is what she showcases and focuses on. Like this artwork, behind the blue background is the luscious blooms of pink, white and purple. (M.D.V.)