MANILA, Philippines - “...I returned to General Santos for a short vacation. While there, I ran into an old friend named Reynaldo Jamora.
He asked me a question that would change my life. He asked me if I would like to meet his niece. I told him I would definitely like to meet her, and we took a cab to the General Santos Mall, where his niece worked.”
“When we walked into the shop, I was floored by Reynaldo’s niece, Jinkee. She was gorgeous. I was so dumbfounded by her beauty that I felt myself standing there far too long, in silence, but I could not stop looking at her. I was just glad Jinkee didn’t think I was weird or some kind of idiot. Fortunately, Reynaldo did most of the talking and suggested that we should meet later for dinner. Of course, I gladly agreed.”
“While in General Santos, I could not get enough of seeing Jinkee, and I continued to look for reasons to get to know her better. I was quite the creative suitor. Jinkee was living with her twin sister, Janet, a college student, and her older sister, Haydee. I would sometimes go by the house in the mornings, breakfast in hand, hoping to see Jinkee. But the tactic did not work so well because they were busy starting the day.
Recognizing the futility of my morning delivery runs, I tried a different track and started to arrive with dinner in the evenings. This approach worked, and I was able to spend time with Jinkee at the end of the day.
When it was time to go back to Manila, I didn’t want to leave Jinkee. More than anything, I wanted her to know exactly how I felt about her, and I just didn’t have enough days to say so. I had work to do, so I left Jinkee for a time.
“After my next fight, which was in Thailand, I came back to General Santos in style. This was the first time I was behind the wheels of my very own ride – a second-hand Toyota Corolla. I was on top of the world and feeling like a huge success. I owned my own car, and Jinkee and I had fallen in love. One balmy summer night, I asked her parents if I could marry her, and they gave me their blessing. When I asked Jinkee to marry me, she shouted a quick, ‘Yes!’ We got married in 1999, and the very next day, I had to go to Manila to train for another fight in Thailand.”
(The Manila Bulletin has been publishing excerpts from “Pacman: My Story of Hope, Resilience, and Never-say-never Determination.” Today’s excerpt comes from the chapter “Knocked Out by Love,” and is about how Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao met the top corner “man” in his life – wife and lifelong partner, Jinkee.)
source: mb.com.ph
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