Simply NUT

BY NESTOR CUARTERO 

He was a man of few words, yet when he wrote, the words overflowed and overwhelmed the reader. They were always on-point, not quite subtle, suggestive and corrective, like the critic that he was.

We, his readers, have long been missing his writing, his often acerbic remarks, his witty, funny asides, especially during conversations.

Nestor Torre, Jr. had been sidelined by a stroke in 2018 and had been confined in a care home until he passed April 6.

Nestor and I go back a long way. He wrote a weekly column for Mr & Ms Magazine in the late 70s and 80s, where I was one of the editors.

I remember our typesetter Nita whining about having to typeset each and every column of his, copying from a handwritten manuscript.

Nestor would write his articles in long hand, on long-bond yellow paper, like he hadn’t discovered the new century (NUT would write that way).

He also belatedly got a hold of a mobile, which he seldom used naman. He was so old school he preferred talking to friends via landline.

Sometime back, I got the surprise of my life when Angel Javier, the perfect PR of GMA Network, called to invite me to an out-of-town sortie.

She said that she was finally able to convince Nestor to join a forthcoming event in Iloilo, one of Nestor’s two hometowns. (The other is Cagayan de Oro).   

“There’s a catch,’’ Angel warned me.

“Ano yun,’’ I asked.

“Nestor agreed to join the trip only if you are going.’’

Oh, thank you, tocayo, for trusting me to be your companion that one weekend in your hometown, where you showed me the scenes of your childhood and where all those words might have come from.