Kristina Medina
Elegant, sharp-witted, and quietly warm, Kristina was known among her close circle not only for her influence in Manila society but also for the unusual softness she reserved for the people she loved most. Nowhere was this more evident than in the way she raised her granddaughter.
When Elara died while Alex was still a child, Kristina stepped forward without hesitation. She became the steady presence in the Medina household, making sure that the girl grew up surrounded by warmth rather than grief. Though Luca Medina remained devoted to his daughter, it was Kristina who took on the daily rhythms of raising Alex—watching over her studies, indulging her mischief, and defending her whenever the child’s spirited personality caused trouble.
Kristina never tried to change Alex’s nature. If anything, she encouraged it.
“You must always be happy, Alex,” she would often say. “You are just like your mother.”
Those who knew the family remembered Alex as a lively and mischievous child—curious, playful, and sometimes impossible to control. Kristina, however, treated those moments with affection rather than discipline. She believed that joy was something to be protected, especially in a child who had already lost so much too early.
Kristina’s closest companion outside the Medina family was Cherrie Espaldon Olañeta–Young. The two women shared a deep friendship that stretched across many years and many quiet afternoons together. One of the traditions they cherished most was their tea in the garden between their neighboring homes in Forbes Park.
Both women loved Balayong trees.
It was Kristina and Cherrie who intentionally planted the soft pink trees that once filled the shared garden between the Medina and Young mansions. Beneath their blossoms, the two women often sat together for tea while the children—Alex and Cass—played freely nearby.
It was during one of these afternoons that Cherrie made a promise that would echo far into the future.
After Elara’s death, Cherrie assured Kristina that Alex would never be alone as long as she lived. If anything ever happened, Cherrie promised that Alex would always have a place within her care. It was a promise made quietly between friends over tea beneath the Balayong trees.
Kristina trusted that promise completely.
Years later, when Kristina died from a brain aneurysm while Alex was only fifteen years old, the loss shook the Medina household deeply. For Alex, it meant losing the person who had raised her after her mother’s death. For Luca, it meant losing the woman who had quietly held the family together during its most fragile years.
Yet the promise between the two grandmothers did not disappear.
Even after Cherrie’s own passing, the commitment she once made to Kristina lived on through the structure of her Trust and the lasting bond between their families.
Today, Kristina Medina is remembered not only as the matriarch of the Medinas, but also as the woman who protected Alex’s childhood with patience, affection, and the simple belief that a child who had known loss deserved to grow up with joy.