Family members and friends gathered yesterday at the Kristo Rai Church in Garapan to pray and mourn the death of a Godfather\u2019s bartender whose body was found in the abandoned La Fiesta Mall in San Roque on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Another rosary at the Commonwealth Health Center Chapel was also held for Emerita \u201cEmie\u201d Relata Romero, who was last seen alive early Sunday morning before she was reported missing.<\/p>\n
Wednesday night\u2019s Mass was filled not just by regular churchgoers but also by relatives, former co-workers, regulars at Godfather\u2019s bar, and dozens more in the community who described the 37-year-old Romero as a devoted mother, a generous sibling, a loving daughter, a dependable employee, and a sweet friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is very kind-hearted and loving. She would do everything for her children. What happened to her was a big shock for her family and friends here and in the Philippines,\u201d said Eduardo Relata, Romero\u2019s oldest sibling, who works at Advance X-terminators.<\/p>\n
A native of Plaridel, Bulacan, Romero is the third of eight children. She first arrived on Saipan in 1990 and worked for many employers here. She even got married at the Philippine Consulate General here. Her husband now lives in the Philippines with their two children.<\/p>\n
Romero lived in Garapan in an apartment that she shared with her brother Relata and another sister, Lhet. Relata shared in an interview yesterday that due to their different work schedules, their family is only able to bond during occasions when they would hang out and sing videoke and just have a good time. <\/p>\n
Accroding to Relata, it was very difficult for Romero to be away from her 17-year-old and 8-year-old daughters. \u201cThat\u2019s why she was always in the computer chatting with them,\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n
He thinks he would miss Romero\u2019s smile the most. \u201cHer smile can soften anyone\u2019s heart. I think that\u2019s one reason why she has so many friends who care for her and have expressed their support to us at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ron Biggers and Scott Dottino, owners of Godfather\u2019s Bar where Romero worked for three years, said it is hard to lose one of their staff in this manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, your Godfather\u2019s family would walk right up to heaven and bring you home again. You will always be part of us,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Dottino, who described Romero as a \u201csteady and reliable\u201d employee, knew right away that something was wrong when she didn\u2019t show up on time for her 5pm shift at the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince her disappearance, the atmosphere here at Godfather\u2019s has been solemn, very sad, and with disbelief,\u201d said Dottino, adding that Romero was \u201cone of the most loyal employees\u201d at the bar.<\/p>\n
According to Biggers, there are people who display \u201ctheir hangups\u201d in life \u201cbut with Romero, it was hard to tell because she\u2019s always there smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working really close with her family, making sure they\u2019re comforted and are taken care of,\u201d said Biggers, noting that Godfather\u2019s will shoulder the cost of repatriating Romero\u2019s body to the Philippines.<\/p>\n
They will do so, he said, once the Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General\u2019s Office give the go-signal to release the body. <\/p>\n
Biggers added that many of their regulars and other community members have given donations at the bar for Romero\u2019s family, prompting them to put a donation box. Several groups are also planning to do fundraisers to benefit Romero\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Melody Marabe, a Godfather\u2019s staff for six years, said Romero was a jolly and very sweet person. \u201cShe can\u2019t live without her cell phone because she always sends text messages to her family. She is also one of the few from whom I ask for advice. She\u2019s beautiful inside and out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudylyn Garcia, who has been working at the bar for less than a year, said she and Romero would watch movies at the theater on their days off. \u201cShe\u2019s always on time, super sweet, and she\u2019s the person I would talk to about my boyfriend. Until now, I still couldn\u2019t begin to understand why this had to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria Nishida, who worked with Romero at GIG discotheque, said Romero is very hardworking employee and a devoted mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I had meetings with our bosses, I would leave my own kids to her and they have a good relationship,\u201d said Nishida, a teacher at Hopwood Jr. High School. <\/p>\n
In fact, it was Nishida\u2019s daughter Midori who found out through flyers and on Facebook that Romero was missing. \u201cShe called me right away and said, Mom, I think Tita Emie\u2019s missing,\u201d said the teary-eyed Nishida.<\/p>\n
Relata expressed his \u201cheart-felt gratitude\u201d for Romero\u2019s Godfather\u2019s family, her other friends and former co-workers, whose support make it possible for them to cope. \u201cI know that the Lord will reward their good heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Romero went missing, Relata said they urged everybody to pray hard that she would be found immediately. \u201cIt\u2019s been difficult, but we\u2019re still grateful that we found her body,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Relata is once again calling on the community, this time to pray that Romero\u2019s killer be found soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope they join us in prayer so that justice will be served for my sister,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Family members and friends gathered yesterday at the Kristo Rai Church in Garapan to pray and mourn the death of a Godfather\u2019s bartender whose body was found in the abandoned La Fiesta Mall in San Roque on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}