Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Sept.4, 2013
This morning, I finished just a
few pieces of laundry within one hour. Then, I had my quiet time. My thoughts
were going here and there as I sat reflecting on the poster color art work Marina just finished of
the Sidra Tree. It was perched on the music stand of our e.piano.
My thoughts went to my mom who is soon to celebrate another birthday
while she is in heaven.
Marina just asked me if there would be a birthday cake up there?
hmmm.... yeah maybe a party. I dunno.
One thing is for sure, she is having a great time there...so what would
she say or feel if say perhaps she was still walking this earth today?
Would my life updates to her bring
a smile to her lips and make her heart wings flutter like an eager butterfly trying
to fly to higher heights?
I remembered each and every one of her offsprings.
I thought of her first born having his own offspring as well after almost
waiting for 10 years. This little boy is almost the age of my first born as
well. Luigi is making his parents really
proud as well by getting into sports in a very good school back in Manila.
Then I thought, if Syria is attacked soon, and Russia retaliates and
blows Qatar into smithereens in chemical
warfare because of the big US facility here, what would I do these last days?
So, I started to reflect hard on the one singular thing I would like to
thank my siblings for. It was not hard to count beyond 10 of what I would like to thank each of them for
and tell mom about but let me just focus on one.
I’d say Dave, thank you for lifting me one day in college with your
short yet meaningful letter to me. I was
smarting from a very grievous offense and almost scandalous insult hurled at me
during an extra curricular activity I organized as the president of the
Economic’s Society.
I will never forget how he wrote to me about oysters. He said, the oyster goes about his business
opening and closing his shell to breathe and eat. In the process, sand gets
inside of it. Maybe, that is not a nice thing as well for the oyster. And yet,
it is patient with the irritations of underwater life. Big or small. And after a period of time uses the same
irritation ( sand ) to make something so valuable. A pearl.
What a life saver you threw my way that day. Thank you!
I will always be proud to boast that
when Bill Gates came to Manila years ago,
you were his country manager and were
with him and the then president of the Philippines, FVR, on a front page
photo of the major dailies that time.
Mom was super proud of you that time and will always be.
Hazel, your 2nd born mom. She is like you if you were alive. She calls me
every now and then. She inquires on my girls and is not fearsome to tell me the
areas I have to work on in the care of my kids.
I will be forever grateful to her
for being the real big sister to me. I will never forget her taking a day off
from work to bring me to the financial
district of Makati for my job interview at Bank of the Philippines Islands just
a few months out of college. I marvelled at the Makati triangle park while
riding the love bus like blue transit we rode on that day. Thank you for your
fabulous wardrobe that I would raid now and then when I don’t have anything to wear
and not return them back on sequestration notice.
Mom ,her Nina is such a beauty. She just got into college. She wants to
be a lawyer.
Chubby...your American looking
baby. The one that resembled dad so much as a child. Well, is one good example
of a disciplined person. He has
abstained from pork for more a decade now I guess and is into
marathons. He is developing Manicaan
into an organic working farm called Luisa’s garden. Your garden.
The one thing I will always remember Chubby for is the memory of him
cooking me noodles soup while I was sick & serving it with crackers. He was
home from a long flight as a steward for Phil.Airlines and I was absent from
work. Long before the fad of chicken soup for the soul, he nourished me in that
very simple gesture that left a very good memory that is nice to look back to
now and then.
Pong...your closest confidante during the turbulent years of Ozamiz. Those were the forgettable for some, but
unforgettable years for me. Pong showed
what being tough was when the going really got rough. He gifted me & my 2 year older than I sister Jennie, with dresses for Christmas when there was not
much to go around with that time. With that simple gesture, we felt much better
going to Christmas mass having in our hearts the true meaning of giving. Giving
with no expectation of anything in return.
Giving with the heart because the heart knows the real need from just
the frivolities of life.
He showed me what giving was even
when it hurts already and did not show it so we do not feel bad. He sacrificed
a lot in giving us those dresses. Also, he sent me a plane ticket right after
graduation, so I can look for work in Manila. He showed me how to ride the
jeepney to get to CM Recto so I can have my resume typewritten. Computer shops
and/or computers were rare things those days in 1989.
Pong’s boys now mom are in college level as well . They are good looking
and responsible young adults.
Chinkie, ah your middle child. Your junior look a like. She is one strong
one. She has a heart as big as the ocean. She has the resilience of a bamboo tree. Bends low but never breaks
despite the storms in her life. She early on taught me what a go getter she
was. She taught me by her stake to being dad’s girl to know my place and embrace
it. I learned how to give way when I have to.
One day during kindergarten going home time, I thought they forgot all
about me. I was waiting and waiting for mom to pick us up in the grade school
waiting benches. Maybe I forgot it could
have been the other campus gate of which there were 4 I think. The WMSU campus
was like super huge for a 6 six year old
like me. I was really lost and confused was in tears already...after what
seemed like ages, I saw my big sister
coming to get me. Oh how I felt saved. And many many times she has done just
that through all these years. Getting
tired maybe now and then, but never stopping to help her younger
sister/siblings. Just recently, she saved me from shelling out dollars for 30 kilos
excess coming to Doha. Her Qatar Airways gold card mileage card took care of it easily
and with not a break of sweat. Whew!
Thank you for the gift of forgiveness and reconciliation dear Sister.
And Oh mom, her daughters are growing up so fast. Patricia is a super
sociable adult already and nurse with compassion. Cheska is in high school
active in military training in school and is quite a head turner. Chinkie’s handsome Raymond is almost to finish medical
school and is serving without nary a complain in some remote village in
Mindanao, risking life and limb to be part of this community in sensitivity and
immersion lessons. He is going to become
a fine young doctor in the future with his head and heart in the right place.
And Jennie, your 6th child, She loves jewelleries and plants like you. She is another one with a magnanimous heart. She
dotes on her nieces and nephews. She almost had a full circle experience for
almost all of us going back to Zamboanga City to lead a bank there. Dad and all
of us are very proud of her for this and many more accomplishments up her
sleeve.
One of the many things I am forever indebted to her is her sponsoring my
1st trip to Bohol for the Single’s for Christ conference there. It was a life
changing occasion that challenged me in
a particular area : Are you still going to praise God even when life get’s
rough?
Then there is your 8th. The youngest for 10 years, Mike. He is still
everybody’s ginger bread boy. I guess he will be forever be a boy in all of our
eyes. Maybe, he lost something in his heart the time you had to go and has
never recovered from it ever since. He
is doing good in sales now. I look forward to seeing pictures of his
trips here and there. His boys are super
good looking. Ryan and Louie are done
with college already. Miguel is now in high school and the beautiful Stephanie
is super brainy and good people person. I am happy that she and Marina are good to each other and have had nice
memorable moments together that they can look back to when they are all grown up ladies in the very
near future.
I will forever look back and be thankful to him for playing tea party
with me & my dolls even if he did
not like to. I had to play marine commando with him though afterwards in our
roof turned playground causing such nuisance and noise for the bank employees under. So, it was
an early lesson in give and take as well. I was always the 3rd wheel in his tandem with his dog
fluffy and their adventures.
And finally, the youngest, Peach.
( I had to take a long break to take care of other domestic business. It
is 3:53pm. Marina is tackling her math problems. Lilli is tinkering with the
piano)
Ok, Peach. Mom, when you passed on, she was barely fresh out of college.
And a lot has happened in 13-14 years. She has found a good man to be her husband,
Vince and now have a very smart and cute fashionista of a daughter. They have
been in Manitoba, Canada for more than 3
years now.
God gave her to us later in our family life for a very special
reason. You had her at 45. I tried and
learned to be a good big sister to her. I found just lately her letter to me
when she was just 7 or 9 years old. It made me sob uncontrollably. It had her drawing of me complete with eyeglasses and with my 2 moles
in my left cheek in my school uniform in highschool. She made my biography. It
made my packing up efforts so hard to do for our great move to come to Doha.
Small mementos like that cannot and will never be discarded. They are fragments
of our hearts made visible...and evidences of
being loved and loved back. Priceless.
One thing I will never forget about her is when I was pregnant with my 2nd baby.
She kept on bugging me about my baby’s gender. She was so eager to pass on to me her lexie’s stuff if my
baby was a girl. And oh my goodness, it was a treasure trove of the good stuff. Barely worn dresses, books, toys and clothes and good shoes and the brands of
which I can only hope for and wish.
So, to our forever baby sis,
thank you. You make me want to have a super fab life now and then.
There you have it.
Mom, I know, how blessed your life
is because of how much sacrifice and effort you put into bringing each one of
us into this world. You were so blessed
to leave this earth with all of us around you and your
BFF of more than 30 years Tita Ely, your sister in laws and of course dad holding
your hand to your last breath
The parting was most painful but will never be bitter for your are
enjoying the fruits and rewards of living a good life. Giving us a good name.
Teaching us right from wrong. Showing us the way to God from our cradle and
surely beyond our graves.
Thank your for loving us in our each own special way. Never making us
feel less loved from one another. Always being proud of us for just being your
child. And that was all that mattered
and not for any laurel that we bring home to you. No, you loved us just
for being ourselves Imperfect and all. Unique, different and very very special . Each child to you was
indeed most beautiful and special. Thank you.
notes on the 5 pictures:
If my memory serves me right, these was mom's 2nd to the last New Year with us. Nina was still a baby. Hazel was in red, Peach was in denim blue skirt, Jennie was in yellow, chubby was in red shorts, Dad was in olive green and she was in maroon.
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