July 13, 2025

In 1962 Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos decided that he wanted to be seen not only as a president but as a statesman so he went on a tour of the orient. I remember distinctly reading in the important daily, the Excelsior a shocking headline that the president had gone to bed with a mistress in the Philippines. It was a sort of joke in bad taste as the mistress in question was a pillow. Filipinos, to fight their stifling night-time heat, had the custom of sleeping with a pillow between their legs.

Since I can remember I have always done that. As a little boy I had a tiny yellow almohadita (little pillow). I was told my mother that since I was growing up I could not sleep with that little pillow. But I continued the custom always making sure my bed had two pillows. In hotels, when Rosemary and I travelled, I always made sure our bed had 3 or 4 pillows.

Even when it is not hot I feel comfortable with that one pillow between my legs that I then hug. With Rosemary now gone, that pillow is awfully important.