Recriminations in the Yanson family

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Even before Daily Guardian hit the streets and appeared online, I received news that is related, almost like reactions to yesterday’s column. I had hoped on the possibility that the feuding Yanson family could reconcile. The situation of Olivia Yanson is such that I believe the opportunity for a return to family harmony presented itself. Alas and alack! The wounds of division appear too deep to even contemplate a compromise.

I have not read the exchanges on social media that had been going on for quite a while but from the information shared to me, two things stand out. First is the question of how and why Olivia was infected, and the second, where the blame lies.

It seems that Ginnette is blaming her four siblings for the sudden ailment of their mother. It does not say how but we can surmise that the disenchantments in the family had affected their mother’s health. Indeed, as I wrote before, anger is self-inflicting, and surely from all that had happened Olivia is an angry mother. Her bitterness is clear in the different cases she filed against her four children.

Reading her case to disinherit her four children, I found it clear that her accusations were filled with anger. Indeed a mother does not disinherit her children without fury and resentment. Anger is a debilitating emotion because, to use the word of Bacolod Bishop Emeritus Vicente Navarra, “nagangutngot”, it eats up, gnaws at a person’s suppressed conscience.

There’s a saying: “Don’t live your life with anger and hate in your heart. You’ll only hurt yourself more than the people you hate.”

As this column had underscored many times, I see the ejection of the Yanson 4 from what is legitimately their share of their father’s inheritance as triggered by anger, sadly for a cause that does not even involve the family but an employee. The last series of columns involving the Causing family, for instance, need not happen if there was respect for what was agreed upon, an agreement that lasted for more than two decades.

Indeed anger clouds reason and vengeance is self-destructive to one’s psychological and physical health.

If blame is to be thrown, it cannot be into the lap of the Yanson 4. They did not create the events that could have angered and weakened her.

However, even if the sudden illness of Olivia were not directly related to the family feud and consequent disintegration of their harmony and the engendering of anger, still their fragmentation left Ginnette and Leo Rey to care for their mother to the exclusion of the others.

Be that as it may, information says that the Yanson 4 do not blame Ginnette for bringing their mother to St. Luke’s Hospital. It was wise for Ginnette to move quickly and the Yanson 4 responded positively with prayers for their mother.

On the other hand, valid questions are raised. Olivia lived with Ginnette in an exclusive residential subdivision where entry by outsiders is strictly controlled. So, where and how did Olivia get the virus? Surely their house is strictly closed to strangers so the possibility of an infection is practically nil.

Ginnette owes it to her siblings to explain this matter and in fact, even to the authorities of the subdivision and the government. There are protocols to be followed. Was Olivia protected and for that matter, Ginnette and her household as well?

I believe though that all the information needed had been obtained by the authorities considering the kind of illness and the necessity of contact tracing.

Ginnette’s siblings deserve to be informed to ease their anxieties, especially whether all the protocols that Ginnette should have followed were indeed enforced. Despite everything, she should keep her siblings constantly up-to-date. Why deny them even this basic courtesy?

Reports confirmed that the Yanson 4 were denied communication with Olivia. That makes one wonder whether the cases attributed to Olivia were not really hers but only used her name.

Ginnette cannot lay blame on her siblings for whatever happens. They were there not by choice but due to the cases that the Yanson 3 filed against them. Ginnette was in control of their mother and reason tells us she should carry the heavy burden and responsibility.