Aloha, Shirley!

The call came from Celia Rodriguez before lunch yesterday.

“She’s gone,” Celia’s voice was sad, very sad. “She left at 10:55 a.m. Sunday (July 10, L.A. Time).”

Celia was referring to her best friend and Premiere Productions colleague Shirley Gorospe who succumbed to brain cancer at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where she was confined at the ICU for a few weeks when she went back to the US after a brief vacation in the Philippines. She was 73.

Since she left the Philippines in 2006, five years after her husband, Zaldy Zshornack, died at 64 due to complications of diabetes, Shirley came home twice, the last having been last May when she was diagnosed to have lung cancer (that later metastasized to the brain, fourth stage). She was confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center until she flew back to L.A. later that month, brought on a wheelchair to the airport.

Sunday morning, Celia relayed to me the sad, bad news, asking me to pray for Shirley who had just been given extreme unction by a Filipino priest at the Cedars-Sinai ICU where she lay in coma, relieved of pain by shots of morphine.

Back in 2006, when Shirley was finalizing things for her departure to the US for good, it was also Celia who called me for an exclusive interview with Shirley who with Zaldy were among the popular love teams of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. I saw Shirley at the large house in BF Homes Executive Village (Parañaque City) where she and Zaldy stayed when they returned after 20 years in the US. She still looked beautiful, reed-thin like the model that she was before she joined and even when she was already in showbiz.

“My secret?” she winked over merienda of turon and tea, “golf! Zaldy and I used to play golf a lot together.”

Shirley’s big, black eyes turned misty as she recalled the early years.

It was love at first sight between her and Zaldy, an enduring romance that lasted for 44 years, blessed with two sons, Garizaldy/Coco (unmarried) and Geno (who has three children).

Shirley and Zaldy in a scene from Hong Kong Honeymoon, their post-wedding movie, shot at the old Kai Tak Airport in the former Crown Colony

Born in Hawaii to an Ilocano father (from Sta. Catalina, Ilocos Sur) and a Portuguese mother, Shirley was Miss Philippines-California of 1956 (and not, contrary to general belief, a Miss Hawaii-Philippines). Part of her prize was a trip to the Philippines where she stayed for two months. It was a memorable, life-changing first homecoming. She met the man who would be her lifetime partner.

“I first met Zaldy during my courtesy call on Pres. Ramon Magsaysay in Malacañang,” Shirley recalled. “Zaldy was there with actors who played basketball, some of them from Sampaguita Pictures. I also met the Santiagos of Premiere Productions during that time. Then, I went back to the US. I was done with college, so I decided to work for Bank of America.”

One day, she got a call from Premiere’s Cirio Santiago who told her that Premiere was shooting parts of the movie Sweethearts (directed by Gerry de Leon) in Disneyland and other places in L.A. Was Shirley interested in joining the cast? Yes, of course!

Badly smitten, Zaldy already started courting Shirley on her first Philippine visit and pursued her relentlessly when she came back for a second visit.

“We met again during a basketball tournament. He approached me and asked, ‘Do you remember me?’ He was kind of mayabang, but nice naman and friendly. ‘Can I visit you?’ Before I knew it, he was knocking at the door of my cousin’s house where I was staying, with the whole Lo’Waist Gang including FPJ. They were shooting the Lo’Waist Gang movie and he invited me to watch the shoot at Premiere.”

They eloped. Shirley was afraid that her mother wouldn’t let her come back. They got married in 1958, the same year she and Pancho Magalona were shooting the movie Be My Love.

“It was a comedy,” Shirley said of the civil wedding held in Cainta, Rizal, which was arranged by Pancho and FPJ. “We waited until my mom fell asleep and then I slipped out of the house. I didn’t understand Tagalog and Zaldy told me, ‘When I nudge your side, say I do, say opo;’ so I kept saying ‘Opo, Opo!’ When we signed the marriage contract and I was asked where I was born, Zaldy quickly answered for me, ‘Tondo, Tondo!’ It was a quickie wedding. It happened in January. In March that same year, we got married in church.”

During her 15 years at Premiere, Shirley did several movies, mostly with Zaldy including Shirley My Darling, You’re My Everything, Ang Kanyang Kamahalan, Tipin, Outside the Kulambo, Hong Kong Honeymoon, Basta Pinoy, Pitong Gatang and Sa Bawat Patak ng Dugo. She also hosted the TV show Shirley on Channel 5 (first directed by Al Quinn and then by Zaldy). Her last movie was Honey & West with the late Bernard Belleza.

What people probably didn’t know is that Shirley and Zaldy’s marriage also survived trials like any marriage.

“After five years,” said Shirley, “I left for the US and divorced him. Too much womanizing, you know. But he kept calling and calling, asking to be given another chance, and he had to court me all over again before I relented. Why shouldn’t I? I loved him; we had a child. He followed me to the US and tore up the divorce papers.”

When they quit showbiz and settled in California, Shirley continued modeling for Ruben Panis (the Filipino designer who was murdered) who did her wedding gown.

“We were then shuttling between the US and the Philippines, until we finally decided to stay there. But Zaldy would come back every now and then to do movies.”

They came back for good in the early ‘90s.

“Shirley came home in December last year to spend Christmas with her son Geno and her grandchildren,” said Celia. “Then she came back again last May and that’s when she was diagnosed to have cancer.”

Last Sunday, Celia talked to her best friend for the last time. It was Garizaldy/Coco who got Celia’s call to the Cedars-Sinai ICU. Coco put the phone near Shirley’s ear and asked his mom to press his hand if she could hear. Shirley did as told.

In tears, Celia kept telling Shirley, “Hold on to Jesus, hold on to Jesus, hold on to Jesus! Jesus loves you very much! I’m sure Jesus’ angels will lead you to heaven!,” adding, “I love you, friend. I love you very much!”

Asked by Coco if she heard Celia, Shirley weakly pressed Coco’s hand.

Then, Coco spoke on the phone, his voice cracking.

“Stop crying now, Tita Celia. My mom will be in a better place.”

(Shirley’s remains will be cremated. There will be a service at the Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills, California, where Shirley’s ashes will be interred together with those of Zaldy Zshornack which she hand-carried in an urn when she left the Philippines in 2006. Together in life, together in death. The love story that bloomed at first sight has ended happily ever after.)

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare.)