Josephine Bracken Early Life

           

                          Marie Josephine Bracken Leopoldine Bracken was born on August 9, 1876 in Victoria, Hong Kong. She was the youngest of the five children of an Irish couple who were married on May 3, 1868 in Belfast, Ireland: British army corporal James Bracken and Elizabeth Jane MacBride. A few days after giving birth to Josephine, her mother Elizabeth died. Her father decided to give her up for adoption to her childless godparents, American George Taufer, an engineer of the pumping plant of the Hong Kong Fire Department, and his Portuguese (second) wife. Josephine’s real father (James) left Hong Kong after retirement and was said to have died at the hands of robbers in Australia.

Josephine Bracken: Jose Rizal's Dear and Unhappy Wife

                       In Jose Rizal's own words, Josephine Bracken is his dear wife. A few year hours before his execution they embraced for the last time and he gave her souvenir- a religious book with his dedication, "To my dear unhappy wife, Josephine."

                        

Josephine as Rizal’s wife

       

                          Depending on the reference one is using, Rizal and Josephine lived together either in Rizal’s octagonal bamboo house. In his letters to his family, Rizal related that Josephine “turned the house into a love nest, stocking the pantry with preserves and pickles” . To prove the depiction, the letters were accompanied by packages of food “prepared by the woman who lives in my house”. 

                          Josephine kept house and took good care of “Joe,” her nickname for Rizal. She “cooked, washed, sewed, and fed the chickens. She learned to make suman (a sticky rice dessert wrapped in banana leaves), bagoong, noodles, and bread. With the Spanish she learned from Rizal, she could write a simple letter. His [Rizal] nephews called her ‘Auntie’” (Bantug, p. 120).

                     

                        To his mother, Rizal described Josephine as “good, obedient, and submissive … We have still to have our first quarrel, and when I reprove her she does not talk back.”