The Groom's Parents

Nicolas Auman
Father of the Groom

Born in March 1942, "Nick" is the youngest of seven children, son of farming couple Julian and Cipriana Sorela. Their family home is nestled in the mountain barangay of Agsungot, Cebu City.

Being mountain dwellers, they found acquiring higher education costly and difficult. Only primary education was available in the rural areas at that time. Nicolas and his next elder brother Pantaleon (Wendell's baptismal godfather) went down to Cebu City and managed to complete their college education largely on their own as working students. His other elder siblings reached only secondary schooling which at that time could qualify them for better paying jobs in the city. Nicolas earned free school tuition by working as clerk-typist in the Univeristy of the Visayas while Pantaleon worked in a hardware store. Both of them finished Bachelor's Degree in Education.

Professional Experience

For nearly four years (1964 to 1967), Nicolas taught high school English Grammar and Literature in the same school he worked for while earning his college diploma. He realized it to be an exceptionally demanding job, requiring him to acquire and read more books on literature to be able to make up for what he lacked as a striving working student.

In 1967, he passed two civil service examinations. The first one qualified him for a permanent job as a public school teacher. The other admitted him to undergo a six-month pre-service training on community development work at UP College campus in Los Baños, Laguna. Having completed the training in March the next year, he was assigned to work in the municipality of Labazon, Zamboanga del Norte as fieldworker for the Presidential Assistant on Community Development (PACD). Among the mixed community of Christians, Muslims and Suban-ons, he met a lady co-worker named Pilar who later became his wife.

Being far from relatives to watch over their first child Oliver, they requested for transfer to Cebu, where Nicolas was assigned in Toledo City and Pilar in Balamban. They rented a house in Balamban and lived there for three years. It was where Oliver, Wendell and Sheila spent their early childhood.

In 1975, they moved to San Fernando, after Nicolas was given a staff post at their regional office in Cebu City. Pilar was briefly reassigned in the municipality of Carcar and later San Fernando. Later he served as Regional Planning Officer for five years, then as Assistant Chief and later Chief of the Technical Services Division of the reorganized Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Regional Office. Once he met Ivy's mother during an environmental project-related event. Dr. Heidi was then consultant for the Cebu City government.

Seeing the need for him and hi wife to personally care for their eldest son Oliver who fell into mental illness during his college years, he availed of optional retirement in 1999 at age fifty-seven. Nicolas has served the government for over thirty years.

Nicolas in Person

Simple in living yet complicated in mind, you would often find Nicolas to be a lecturer of matters at hand, opposite to his soft-spoken wife. Often disagreeing to conventional knowledge and observable situations, he is a debator over tables, over wine or water.

At Present

He now spends much of his time in the backyard, pruning trees and accompanying Oliver.

Pilar Auman
Mother of the Groom

Pilar Medina Covarrubias was born on October 12, 1940 in suburban barangay Divisoria, Zamboanga City. A Chavacano, Pilar speaks Bisaya with a peculiar accent. The third of seven children, she grew up, studied and completed Commerce in Zamboanga City, where she started her career in a local accounting firm.

Professional Experience

In search of a better job, she joined the 25th Pre-Service School, a 6-month taining on community development in UP Los Baños, Laguna. She was appointed afterwards as a Community Development Worker of the Office of Presidential Assistant on Community Development (PACD) in November 1969. She was first assigned to Zamboanga del Norte and met Nicolas who has started working there a year ahead of her. They married the following year at St. Vincent Cathedral in Dipolog City.

Upon request, the couple was assigned to Cebu and Pilar landed in Balamban while Nicolas in Toledo. They were then working for the newly created Department of Local Government and Community Development (DILG) after PACD was abolished under the presidency of Ferdinand E. Marcos. Having served for three years, she was later reassigned to work briefly in the municipality of Carcar and for a year in neigboring San Fernando. The next year brought her to Talisay, working as Local Government Officer II until her retirement in January 1999. Her long experience in barangay government administration won her the position of Officer-in-Charge Municipal Mayor for a couple of months covering the first local elections held nationwide under the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

She has served the government for 29 years.

Pilar in Person

As a child, when a helper was not available, Wendell and the rest of her children used to tag along with her to work. He often took over the typewriter and make song book pages of favorite radio hits. Once, she slipped and wounded her forehead on the office floor when she ran to Sheila's calling while playing.

When the children went to Elementary School, Pilar made the uniform for her children, using an old sewing machine. To this day, that sewing machine rests in a corner of the house like a monument.

At Present

She now leads a simple country life with her husband and grown up children in Pit-os. She makes nutritious food out of the backyard ecology: from chicken eggs to bamboo shoots. The family rarely eat the eggs' mother since they love those chickens.

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