What Miriam withholds in her ‘tell all’ book

You might be wondering why the “tell all” in today’s headline is enclosed in quotation marks. Read on.

Well, I read Miriam Quiambao’s biography titled He Can Catch You When You Fall in one sitting end of December last year after I chanced upon a copy during one of our rare visits to the National Bookstore with my friend Raoul Tidalgo. Yes, I was intrigued by the book’s subtitle, The Continuing Life Story of Miriam Quiambao, and I bought extra copies as Christmas gifts to my friends Ronald Constantino, Ethel Ramos and Jojo Gabinete.

Miriam’s long journey from an “ordinary girl” to a beauty queen to an actress/TV host to an “Italian Princess” to a Born-again Christian is marked by endless rises and falls in the peaks and valleys of life, driving her to attempts of ending her life which, thank heavens, were not successful.

The very first of her life’s several “falls” was actually witnessed by millions on television around the world back in 1999 when, as the country’s bet in the Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad-Tobago, Miriam who was then 24 (born on May 20, 1975 in Quezon City), she fell onstage during the pre-pageant night while Julio Iglesias was serenading her and the 84 other candidates. The truth is that Miriam won Bb. Pilipinas-World along with Lalaine Edson Bb. Pilipinas-International (but who competed in the Miss World pageant, after which she vanished as if into thin air?) but when Fil-Am Janelle Bautista was dethroned due to a technicality, Miriam was asked to replace her. It was a step in the right direction, kicked off by that famous fall that showed her grace under pressure, her poise and coolness in what could have been an embarrassing situation.

“As I slowly stood up to regain my stance,” recalled Miriam who finished first runner-up to Miss Botswana, the highest placement of a Philippine bet at that time since Gloria Diaz and Margie Moran had brought home the title in 1969 and 1973, respectively. “The crowd started getting noisier. I looked up to see the crowd in standing ovation as the noise eventually turned into applause and I walked to make a circle onstage. I stopped to pose on center stage, and in gratitude for the support, I spread my arms wide to thank the audience and finally placed my hands on my waist to settle on my pose.”

It was a fall that refreshed…winner!!!

A beauty crown can elevate a winner to glorious heights and, sob and sigh, then weighs her down to hard earth with a loud thud. What happened to Miriam also happened to another Bb. Pilipinas-Universe (of 1967), Pilar Pilapil, another “ordinary girl” whose life felt like a roller-coaster ride that found meaning and fulfillment in the nurturing embrace of The Lord. Like Miriam, Pilar has told her story in a biography titled The Woman Without a Face (published in 2006), leaving no stone unturned, so to speak, and naming names, relating in titillating details her romances with Dolphy and Vice Pres. Doy Laurel (who gave her a daughter, Pia, married to model Gerry Gonzalo who lost his sight in a car accident), both deceased, and a few other good men until she found lasting happiness with a pastor (the only man she married).

But unlike Pilar, Miriam left unnamed the men she got involved with, never mind if her life has always been an open book, including the “Ferrari-driving Italian” who made her live like a princess, a life that so isolated her that she became, as Miriam confessed, “heartbroken, depressed and suicidal.” Her fairy-tale life in Hong Kong (where her husband ran a restaurant) ended in divorce, but not Miriam’s woes.

Like in Pilar’s case, Miriam found herself and the tuwid na daan in the arms of Christian author Andy Roberto, a widower and the second man she married. The only time Pilar left the readers hanging, wondering what happened, was in the chapter where, as a teenager, she was scolded by her strict father who locked the door, and that was when, according to Pilar, she realized how cruel her father was without revealing what happened behind that closed door.

Miriam opted to withhold not just some names but some salient points in her life, leaving her readers guessing (easy does it!), and that’s why I have to enclose the “tell all” in today’s headline in quotation marks.

So what drove Miriam to think of suicide not just once, not just twice but several times, especially when she suffers setbacks in her love life, in the businesses she invested, in when her career hit an all-time low, when life seemed so dark and she couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel? Go buy a copy of the book whose title was derived from that fall in Trinidad-Tobago.

Luckily for Miriam, Somebody is always around to catch her when she falls. Praise The Lord!

(Note: He Can Catch You When You Fall will have a VIP/Press launch on Saturday, March 21, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the National Bookstore in Glorietta 1, Ayala Mall, Makati City.)

Top to bottom: Derek Ramsay and the Philippine Frisbee team…Derek with his Offensive Line teammates Junthir Flores, Hendrix Maming, James Yap and Will Steedman…and above (left and right) Derek in tip-top shape.
 

A season of wins for Derek

After a successful run of his starrer English Only, Please for which he won Best Actor (and his leading lady Jennylyn Mercado Best Actress), Derek Ramsay has been on a joyride winning more awards.

Don’t look now but Derek will be declared by an international glossy magazine as “one of the most accomplished bachelors in Asia,” to be released worldwide next month.

Recently, Derek the sportsman bagged another win during the Ultimate Frisbee World Cup in Dubai. The Philippines placed Third Best in the World, beating Great Britain in the play-offs. How ironic because Derek is half-Filipino and half-Brit. The Philippine team was supported by The MVP Group, The Belo Medical Group and JLD Management.

The tournament is held once every four years with about 30 countries competing in several divisions. The Philippines finished in the following divisions:

• Master’s Team, Bronze;

• Open Team, Bronze;

• Mixed Team, fifth place; and

• Women’s Master’s Team, sixth place.

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