Portrait of Candy as a single mom

It’s true what they say. When God closes a door, He opens a window. Candy Pangilinan may be a single mom (to 10-month-old Quentin), and the victim of not one, but two maids’ supposed negligence and covetousness. She may have to get up as early as 4 to 5 a.m., even after a late night out performing or taping to look after her son. She may have to work twice harder to support him and save enough money to get back all that cash, jewelry and appliances stolen from her on two occasions: one with a dugo-dugo gang last December and another, by a newly-hired maid from an employment agency.

But Candy’s career is blooming, even at a time when fellow actors are jobless and counting the spiders hanging from their ceiling. She plays the Visayan Cecille Matutina, the brainiest maid in town, on the daily ABS-CBN show Maid in Heaven.

"My eccentric mistress, played by Joy Viado, owns cats which I’m allergic to. So I acquire asthma on the job," the bubbly Candy relates her "occupational hazard."

Candy has just renewed her contract as EQ Diapers endorser, and is looking forward to doing a second version of her commercial.

She also hosts the weekly Yes Yes Show, also on ABS.

Candy is so busy she hardly has time to brood over her failed marriage (to Gilbert Alvarado) and the two cases of robbery that took away her hard-earned money and valuables (she was in Davao the first time; taping for a show the second).

"Once, when I was having my hair fixed at Symmetria, Celeste Tuviera asked me if I still hang around the sari-sari store like I did during my early days in the business. That was before I bought a car to take me around and had the means to enjoy the perks of celebrity. Oh, how I wish I could!" she sighs.

Anyone who makes a living making people laugh will tell you finding the pulse of the masa by hanging out in places they frequent, like the corner sari-sari store, is a sure-fire way of getting your jokes right.

But motherhood and a flourishing career exact a price.

She’s doing her best to stretch her limited schedule, though. At 11 p.m., when everyone in the household (also consisting of her yaya of 32 years) is asleep, Candy gets up from the sofa bed in her son’s room to slip out of the house. She hies off to the streets to update herself on the hottest trends, conversation topics, all things in and cool, especially with the masses. She gets home at 3 a.m., just an hour before the baby monitor friends gave her on her wedding day makes a sound to tell her Quentin is up.

But Candy remains undaunted. She plans to do more. Candy plans to try a first in her life: ride the MRT from terminal to terminal and get answers to such simple questions as: do you get stuck in the doors if you’re not fast and agile enough, or what happens when people jostle for treasured seats during rush hours?

Do they still manage, in true Pinoy style, to find humor in the sticky situation? If they do, what kinds of jokes do they crack?

Questions, questions. Ever-curious Candy can’t wait to find answers to them, the funnier the better.

Raising a frisky boy all by her lonesome is hardly a laughing matter, though. It jolts Candy awake an hour or two after she has turned in early in the morning from work or from "researching" on the latest jokes.

"I change my son’s diapers myself (EQ, of course)," she relates. "When my yaya takes him out in his stroller to get some sun at 8 to 9 a.m., that’s the time I manage to snatch a few winks."

Sometimes the thought of having a partner to help her change diapers or take the boy around crosses her mind. But the thought vanishes as soon as it crops up. Why, Candy refuses to explain. Obviously, she considers that part of her life a closed chapter.

It’s enough that she has no regrets marrying her boyfriend of six years because she gave him Quentin.

Her other surefire antidote to depression is going to the grocery stores. Shopwise, Pricemart, Unimart, Cherry’s, Shangri-La — she has been to all of these. And Candy can tell you the price of her favorite purchases – beef and chicken – right off the bat, like a full-time homemaker can.

Malling is a different matter altogether. Candy heads straight to the baby’s section, where she hunts for things to delight Quentin’s heart. Her needs are secondary.

At home, Candy puts up an ‘intimate’ show for her household whenever she has to leave for work. When Quentin senses that his mom is about to leave, he does what all kids do to make their mom stay: run after her as if his life depends on it.

That’s where Candy’s well-honed theatrical skills crop up. She takes off articles of clothing right in front of the boy, who doesn’t suspect the gradual change of attire (costume change in showbiz lingo) is her way of slowly weaning him away from him, at least for the moment.

"Sometimes, I even play hide-and-seek. Except that this time, he can’t see me anymore after I hide," chuckles Candy.

Candy Pangilinan may not be a typical mom like many women out there. But deep inside, she’s every inch like them: ready to take the shirt off her back for the little one who means the whole world to her.