The Steel Brassiere by Irish Shiela Crisostomo

The story starts when she visited Tiya Anding’s house at JP Rizal Street where it is prompted to be demolished and there she recovered a bra that distinct from those cotton and soft bras, it was made out of hard and cold steel. And then, she tried to wear the steel bra and laughed on how she looked like a female warrior, she felt the coldness of the steel in her bare skin. After that, Lindoln, her husband for 8 years, nagged her for her such behaviour where her children got sick. All the words said by her husband do not mean anything to her anymore unlike how his words stick to her mind all day and all night before, she felt lost, so the day came the house was demolished, ashes and dirt flew over the place which made her remember Tiya Anding says about her husband, “That old man just cannot live without me”, thinking if soon she can say those words to her husband. Finally, once remembered the cold bra against her bare skin, phone rang, senses came back, Lindoln was calling, calling, and calling again.

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After reading the title what I expected was a story about a warrior. From the word, steel, for me it was like talking about a warrior and the steel brassiere was a part of a warrior’s clothes. It is the clothes that protect the warrior from the bloody and cold war. But as I read the few lines of the story, it was a treasure kept from a long time of a relative. It was found on an old house of her Tiya and kept on a box, founding a thing most especially from a dear relative who has passed away is I think it was a thing that has a value. The climax made me feel sad for the main character because she seems so lost with her emotions and thoughts. The story is about a woman who is confused with her feelings; she seems like being suppressed with her own emotions and thoughts.

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I liked that the story is about a wife trying to comprehend her feelings. My favourite part is when she remembered her Tiya Anding saying “That old man just cannot live without me” because when soon we will have our own family with children and especially married to a wife that for the rest of our lives is the only one we can be with. I did not like the story for a reason that you still have to read it for a few times in order to understand it. The story is not a story where I can relate much because it tackle a family matters where you are married and the struggle of identifying which right emotions to deal with when living in the same roof. The story teaches us that creating and building a family needs a strong foundation those emotions and problems cannot be the factors that will destruct the relationship. I give the story four stars out of five.

Charlon Gem U. Daan, ba209 5:30-6:30