Marilyn Santiago-Kerr: Golden Girl

Marilyn Santiago-Kerr is speaking passionately about her recent golf struggles. She is to play a well-seeded lady golfer the coming Saturday and she wants to make sure she does her best. Lately she has been besieged by harsh cough, deep congestion and overall fatigue. But she is not canceling the match under any circumstance. To cancel would be to forfeit the game and if it came to a point where she would need an IV to get through the game she would probably find a way to make it work out. One tries to feign sympathy but it is very difficult to feel sorry for Marilyn about anything these days. A statuesque 5’9", the half-Filipino, half-Virgin Islander has (in spite of being a mother of one) "the exact measurements as Sharon Stone," attests la Stone’s fashion designer Ito Curata. Whereas 99.9 percent of Hong Kong residents live in apartments, the beautiful Marilyn and her husband, the dashingly gorgeous British chairman of Swire Properties Keith Kerr, lives in a fantastic five-story Mediterranean home in chic Island Road overlooking Repulse Bay where one is greeted in the morning by the wondrous sight of rowers, gulls and yachts traipsing across the huge French windows.

Not to rest on her laurels, Marilyn is known in the former colony as "the Martha Stewart" of Hong Kong. She is publishing several books on how to run the perfect household. Several times a week, Marilyn conducts classes in her home on food preparation, home management and proper serving techniques — all the lessons necessary to run a proper British-influenced household. In 2005, Marilyn ventured into the jewelry business and has since been supplying her pieces to HK’s jet set. Her line called Que Pilla, a marvelous collection of fresh water pearls and Indian sterling silver, is sold at the Conrad Hotel gift shop.

Upon arriving in Manila Saturday evening, this writer gets an e-mail from Marilyn. She shares the day’s events which mention in passing that she, in spite of her dismal condition, she had won the golf game that day. She is one of the top seeded amateur female players in Hong Kong and has more trophies than she can properly store. I sigh and shake my head. Poor girl!