Marit Stinus, wife of the late press secretary Cerge Remonde, is greeted by family and friends after they arrived in Cebu City Friday. Remonde, who died of cardiac arrest last Tuesday, will be buried in Argao tomorrow. (Photo by CHERYL BALDICANTOS)

A man at peace, a fantastic husband, a loyal friend, and a hardworking public servant.

These were among the words describing the late Press Secretary Cerge Remonde by family, friends, and colleagues during necrological rites last Thursday night in Malacañang.

People from government and media gathered at the Heroes Hall for a mass concelebrated by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal to remember Remonde who touched the lives of everyone he met with kindness and humor.

Remonde, who died last Tuesday, will be buried in his hometown Argao, Cebu on Sunday. He has left behind an extraordinary record of public service, a remarkable career in journalism, and huge host of admiring friends and colleagues.

In a packed Heroes Hall, Marit Stinus-Remonde said he was a loving husband and a devoted public servant, a fierce loyal supporter of President Arroyo, and thanked the people for their love and support for her husband.

She also remembered the first time she met his future husband and how some friends warned him against a Filipino admirer.

“I told my friends I met this fantastic man and they were very concerned. They warned me, ‘You better check maybe he’s married already.’ I told them no, of course he’s not married. No, they said, you will never know Filipino men,” she recalled, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

“I told them it was too late because I was too much in love with Cerge. The rest is history,” she said. They were married for 15 years.

She admitted that Remonde was “really challenged” two months after the 2005 shortly after the election fraud controversy implicating President Arroyo. Remonde shared with her in a private dinner in Bacolod that he had lost “all his illusions” following the “Hello Garci” controversy.

“He believed in a lot of things until then. I will not be specific about the institutions and personalities that he mentioned but he had lost some idealism about many things,” she recalled. Marit tried to comfort her husband and said it was good to lose illusions because they were just illusions anyway.

------> Marit Stinus, wife of the late press secretary Cerge Remonde, is greeted by family and friends after they arrived in Cebu City last Friday. Remonde, who died of cardiac arrest last Tuesday, will be buried in Argao on Sunday. (Photo by CHERYL BALDICANTOS)