Lotis remembers

Manila, Philippines – “DOLPHY, you were the sunshine of my life,” recalls Lotis Key, the Boticelli beauty who captured the comedian’s heart long, long ago, in a kingdom by the showbiz sea.

Lotis replays their love affair in a two-minute soliloquy aired over ABS-CBN/ANC, in which she refuses to show her face on-cam but reveals the quality of their relationship: “We could both die laughing at our own jokes,” and only an asthma attack on both sides could save them.

Lotis, writer and actress, lives in Minnesota, where she manages a theater group. After she left Manila – and a trail of broken hearts – sometime in the ‘80s, word was that she had become a Christian and was working in a hospice with angelic sweetness and missionary zeal.

She recalls how “Dolphs” asked her to marry him, but beyond buying a pair of wedding rings that he would display on her pillow, her plate or a tray, and popping the question by raising his eyebrows as he gazed into her eyes, both knew marriage was not in the stars. At the time he already had someone and “two or three children” even though he was not married to the woman.

Last year in San Francisco, Lotis accidentally met “one of the mothers” of his many children and asked her to forgive her for causing her pain and tears.

Last year, Dolphy was 82 and Lotis was 60 (or younger). Last Thursday, Lotis concluded her story by telling “Dolphs”: “In my old age now, I think of you and I smile.”