Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

"Some people enter our lives like deer slipping in and out of the woods. They touch our earth and we stop to look at them. They disappear as quietly as they came. But you feel blessed for having experienced their gentle presence. And you give thanks that the world is a better place because of the joy they brought."

—Maryknoll Sr. Joan Metzner

NEW YORK—I only knew Reynaldo "Ronnie" Alejandro based on some of the coffee table books he wrote, mostly on Philippine cuisine.

Little did I know that that was but a speck of his life. It turns out he was much more than just a book author.

On Tuesday, September 1, friends and family gathered at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center to celebrate the life of Ronnie Alejandro. He joined our Creator peacefully on August 7 after battling cancer. He was 67.

The simple memorial service showed Ronnie’s coterie of friends from different aspects and phases of his life. One by one, his friends shared fond memories of him, and one common thread shone through: he was a very fun person to be with.

"Just a few weeks after Ronnie took his last breath, I received a call from him and was surprised with the question he raised. ‘Viv, tell me, should I die in New York or should I die in the Philippines?’" Vivian Talambiras-Cruz, a close friend and confidante, shared.

Vivian told Ronnie that it should be in a place wherever he felt comfortable, and reassured him that wherever that may be, there would be many people taking care of him round the clock.

Ronnie arrived in New York in 1969 and lived here for four decades. It is in the city where he morphed from a dancer to a librarian, from a choreographer to a gourmet chef to a cultural writer.

"If there is one thing that Ronnie taught me, it would have to be reinvention," an emotional Lorli Villanueva Dimaala said. Lorli met Ronnie in 1966 and were some of the pioneers at the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA).