From Our Lady of Candles in Jaro, we passed by the mansion of the Lopezes in Jaro on our way to La Paz.
Mention of this mansion is always included in Edmund’s childhood stories.
Aside from the Lopez’ estate, we’ve also seen at least a dozen similar post-Spanish era colonial homes and pre-war heritage mansions around Iloilo City. Edmund told me that many were owned by sugar barons.
This mansion is very memorable to Edmund. His school was walking distance from the place he stayed in the city and he passed by this mansion everyday. The small pond had flowing water and the little Edmund enjoyed looking at it and wished that someday he would have something like that. This explains why he’s always attracted to ponds.
He single-handedly built a 3m x 2 m organic pond inside our first house complete with rocks and flowing brook. After a few years, I had it cemented because there were too many ipis living around it.
