Robina Gokongwei remembers her mom with a lot of love—and laughs
"She was very funny and always very nice to people,” Robina Gokongwei-Pe, chairman of Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc., says, remembering her mom Elizabeth Gokongwei with a lot of love—and a humongous dose of laughter.
Robina shares this incident out of so many funny ones: “Mom was also working with us at Robinsons Retail on E. Rodriguez Ave. in Libis and she had a new driver who was very old. They tried to enter a compound and the guard said they were not allowed inside. But my mom insisted, ‘But I work here.’ The guard stood his ground. Then my mom said, ‘But look, I’m Elizabeth Gokongwei, I own Robinsons.’ And the guard said, ‘Ma’am, this is not Robinsons, it’s in the next building.’”
Robina adds with a chuckle, “She was very nice. She didn’t threaten the guard that he would be fired because he didn’t know Elizabeth Gokongwei.”
Always kind and gentle, Elizabeth never talked down on people; instead, she talked to them. It’s probably the best lesson Robina learned from her mom, “Respect people whoever they are. Even with this guard, she was very respectful, asking him calmly how come she was not allowed in her own office.”
Did Robina inherit the foregoing trait from her mom?
“No, I’m masungit,” goes her frank reply.
Elizabeth and tycoon husband John Gokongwei were poles apart. “She’s the opposite of my dad,” says Robina. “Even if my dad’s stuff was always cluttered, he knew exactly where everything was. On the other hand, my mom was very neat, but she couldn’t remember where she put things. My dad remembers places, my mom forgets.”
Elizabeth’s love of divas
Robina can’t count the beautiful memories her family of eight (with siblings Lance, Lisa, twins Faith and Hope, and Marcia) shared around the table through the years. But she simply can’t forget when they surprised their mom on her 80th birthday with one magical night of glamour, love and music.
The ultimate surprise was a private mini concert featuring four of Elizabeth’s favorite divas—Elizabeth Ramsey, Carmen Pateña, Carmen Soriano and Pilita Corrales.
“Mom was over the moon,” Robina posted on Facebook. “She told us it was the best concert she had ever attended in her life.”
Robina recalls with a sigh, “We were lucky to be in the same room with legends (a lot of them now gone) who brought my mom so much joy— and gave all of us a night we’ll never forget.”
On top of her workload as founding member of Robinsons Department Store and head of its merchandizing department, Elizabeth knew how to have fun—and boy, did she!
Blooming tribute
Amid 10,000 fresh flowers from all over the world, Robinsons Department Store pays blooming tribute to all mothers at the launch of the flower installation by Tiger Lim at Robinsons Galleria (May 8-14). Did Robina give her mom flowers or gifts on Mother’s Day?
“No, we would just greet each other Happy Mother’s Day,” says Robina dressed in red, as in UP Fighting Maroons red (Robina has been a staunch supporter of the school’s basketball team). “Maybe my more obedient sisters did.” Motherhood is complicated, Robina declares. “I even forgot it’s Mother’s Day.”
Do her kids give her gifts on Mother’s Day?
“No,” she quickly replies. “Because they have to buy their gifts from our stores. And I would know how much the gift was.”
Soul and joy
Elizabeth was the heart and soul of her family. “She was kind, loving, generous, full of joy,” said Lance Gokongwei in his book Lessons from Dad.
Lance named some of the best lessons he learned from his mom: “Laugh; be good to others and others will be good to you; be yourself, don’t compare yourself to others because someone will always be smarter than you. So, just go out there and be yourself.”
And then the light—and the laugher—faded when Elizabeth passed away at 85, a day after burying her beloved John, 93, in 2019. It seemed that John and Elizabeth were never meant to be apart even just for a week.
On her mom’s 91st birthday, Robina paid a heartwarming tribute with a note on the valuable lessons her mom taught her children. Robina recounted that while she looked like her late father John, she believed that her cropped hairstyle was similar to her mother’s—on a bad hair day.
Robina concluded her “love letter” to her mom, “Happy birthday, Mom! Thank you for setting the bar early and for showing us how to walk with kindness and laughter every day. After 63 years, I’m still trying to be kind.”
So, how is Robina celebrating Mother’s Day?
“I will just force my family to treat me,” she says with an impish smile.
