March 2024

Our living area with the ceiling lights off and the lamps and lanterns on, view from the northeast side. I am obsessed with lights and the changes they create in every space.

We left our family altar and columbary, actually an antique komoda with a white, marble slab top, where it used to be. All of my four sisters and I pitched in to buy it when I was still working at the U.S. Embassy. A Venetian-type mirror behind it functions as a portal for the spirits of ancestors to come through.

An antique, narra cabinet to the left houses ancient clay treasures from a private excavation. Farther left, my framed, oil pastel portrait of my younger son Chito; below it, my portrait in oil by Rafael del Casal. The neoclassical lamp was a purchase from Mike Prado's shop from the time he still had Blue Bacon and Green Eggs.

Above the sofa on the left hang seven lanterns with gold-plated frames, containing tea lights.