Edith M. Alinday

Virginia, known as Nanay Edith not only to her children but to her nephews, nieces and grandchildren as well, is the eldest of the Alinday children. Born in 1943 when Lola Coring was only 20 years old, she easily makes friends with people she meets due to her easygoing character and outgoing nature.

She finished her secondary school late and by the time she gave birth to her eldest child, she was still doing her Education studies at the University of the Visayas, the first university in Cebu. Unfortunately, she managed to stay only until her second year in Uni finding it difficult to balance her study commitments and raising her young daughters at the same time, not to mention the physical demands of her daily trips to and from the city in order to attend Uni.

As more children were added to her own family, she spent most of the years that followed working as a househelp to an affluent family in Manila, leaving her children with Lola Coring. She sent most of her earnings though to Lola Coring but when she had to go back to Carmen after her employer in Manila left the country to live abroad, she met a new life partner and started another family of their own. Her first four children were then left totally under the care of Lola Coring.

In trying to make both ends meet and to help support her second family, she would do domestic chores and cook during fiestas in exchange for a small stipend. She is more of an all-around person doing what she can to help. Employment does not seem to suit her, when she worked in the municipal office once she did not stay long. The nine-to-five grind is just not her forte.

Now in her sixties, Nanay Edith is living with her partner in Carmen in another barangay not far from Lolo Jose's pink house.