There were only 2 female staff in the Coca-Cola Makati Sales Office—the secretary of the Manager (Thelma) and the Marketing Analyst (yours truly!). Thelma taught me how to wear slight make-up to enhance my beauty(kuno!), aerobic dancing to maintain my Coca-Cola figure, how to talk properly to customers and how not to be intimidated by the 100+ men in the warehouse.
Thelma also encouraged me to run small businesses inside the office:
a) All rank-and-file employees of SMC receive a sack of rice every month. I buy the men's rice allocation for P85/sack and then sell them to outsiders who go to the office for P120/sack.
b) I also buy the route helpers' allowance. What does this mean? After the 30th of the month, the men no longer have money in their pockets (drained by their 2-3 wives). They approach me to buy their allowance. I would pay them P80 and then on the 5th, their P120 allowance will be given to me by the Payroll Master. Failure to fulfill this promise will automatically forfeit their chance to have business with me again, plus I will squeal to the real wife how much he was really receiving (they apply correction fluid on their pay envelopes to lower their take-home pay).
Thank you, Teng, for the wonderful years that you shared with me. Thelma left this world at a tender age of 33. Please join me in offering a short prayer for her . . . One week before her departure, she invited me to celebrate Valentine's Day in their apartment. She was then happily married with her 6-yr old son & a 4-yr old daughter. I was her only guest yet she prepared buttered chicken, kare-kare and fruit salad with corn. We spent the day just catching up on each other's news, talking as if there's no more tomorrow . . . The following week, she was gone. For 5 consecutive nights I was beside her coffin, not ready to let her go. Nanay accompanied me on the day of her burial and it was one of the very rare occasions that I saw my mother cry.
ATE ALMA
Part of my business was buy and sell of signature pants—name it, I have it. Ate Alma was generous enough to supply me with pants which she brings to my office with a certain minimum order. If my memory serves me right, I buy the pants for P120 in cash and sell them for P180 (payable in 3 gives).
