This is a new page that I have added. I will be using this page to share with you ordinary, unusual or interesting events happening with me or my family or around us. It could be expected events or events that may just come. It will be more personal than anything else. I may be sharing with you happy or sad events, cheerful or woeful. Whatever it is, I want you all to be a part of what I think, what I do, how I feel and how I live. I welcome you all to this page and I thank you for your interest.
God willing, my daughter Angie and her baby girl, Amaya, will be arriving from Manila tomorrow for a few days visit. Amaya is a survivor after she and her twin sister, Bianca, were born prematurely. It was a difficult pregnancy that cost the life of the latter. Amaya will be 2 years old pretty soon and she is one heck of a kid. After storing words she has been hearing all these times in her memory bank, she is starting to blurt them out. Though incoherent still, the sounds, however, are discernible. She understands Tagalog, Visaya, Spanish and English. She is a whiz at puzzles for her age and she can distinguish clearly a circle from a square and triangle. She has no fear of the sea. She has been mumbling to her mother that she wants to come to ‘ebu (Cebu), avon, (avion- spanish for plane), papoo (to see papooch-thats me). How sweet!
Because of their coming, I don’t think I shall have the time to blog. Please bear with me.
While Angie was preparing and packing their things for the flight back to Manila in the afternoon of May 27th, a brother of mine arrived from the U.S. in the morning. He is retired anesthesiologist residing in Jacksonville, Florida. He normally comes every year to visit our dotage mother. It is always a happy occasion every time he comes for a visit. The house gets very noisy and everybody seem animated with his presence. There is always food on the table. His coming seems to give ma an extended life! Both he and ma are wearing hearing aids and when ma’s hearing aid batteries are faltering, there could be shouting matches between them! Every one gets to enjoy a good laugh and that is just what we need after practically a year of existence under a somber mood at ma’s house.
Please bear with me then if my blogs will be coming out far in between. I need to keep my brother company and make sure his stay will be worthwhile. He always looks forward to his yearly visit with us as much as we eagerly expect his coming. I don’t want him to feel disappointed. I only want for him to have fond memories when he goes back to the U.S.
My son, Iñaki, is probably going through the most thrilling phase of his life when he goes solo in an ultra-light plane today. He is an avid flier in computer flight simulation, taking on all kinds of planes, but, to actually fly all alone without any instructor beside him serving as a security blanket, is a test of his ability and capability to fly bigger planes.
I never thought Iñaki will ever take flying lessons. I remember one time I was painting the front portion of the house, sitting on an scaffolding about 20 feet high. I asked Iñaki to come up and help me. He did climbed up and sat down with me but after a while I noticed he kept on moving and was not at ease. I looked at him and he was not smiling and apparently not enjoying his stay up with me. Little did I know that he was already having butterflies in his stomach exhibiting this fear of heights. He probably was cussing me going down, after I told him to do so with utmost care.
He may have been finding ways to overcome this fear. And the only way to do it is to go up high all the time and get used to it. No doubt he was able to conquer it, but he did it the most expensive but exhilarating way!
Congratulations King! Am sure you’ll get that certificate of flying proficiency.
A slightly frustrated pilot finally soared up in the sky, specifically over the plains of central Luzon making a life-long dream come true.
Am talking of course about Iñaki who made his first solo flight in an MX II Quicksilver ultralight plane with Rotax 503 engine (50 h.p.) and experience the fun and excitement of what they call the “open cockpit, seat-of-the-pants flying.”
Iñaki could have been flying a long time ago had we allowed him to enter the nation’s premier military school, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), back when he was finishing his high school in Ateneo de Zamboanga. He could have chosen later the Philippine Air Force (PAF) branch of service for his military career.
We dissuaded him, however, from proceeding to PMA because of my gut-feeling apprehensions on hazing inside the military school.
It was not hazing, per se, that I was afraid of. It was Iñaki’s appearance, his light brown hair and very fair complexion that might make it a fair game to some brutish upper classmen, venting their misplaced anger on someone as revenge for the same “atrocity” perpetrated on them when they were plebes.
I was just being on the side of safety for my son, knowing things could accidentally be worse, from the many that were not able to make it through anymore.
He was also advised against getting into the PMA, at that time, by two of his recently graduated cousins.
Never a moment have we all regretted making that decision.
At the end, Iñaki got a well paying job in a very stable oil company after the firm took the risk of hiring a Fine Arts graduate.
The only downside is that the demand and effort for efficiency in your job makes your hair turn white prematurely!
But, what the heck, he is always in the comfort of his family and this means a lot.
He does not find himself dropping bombs in enemy territories.
He finds himself instead immersed in a fight for market leadership among the competing established big oil companies and the new players coming in.
But, what is gratifying, above all, is that he was still able to fulfill his dream of flying and, by whatever type of plane you are controlling, the spine-tingling, breathtaking experience is the same.
And I think while our adventurer was out in the sky having the wildest experience in his life, all of us grounded loved ones were praying like mad for his safe touchdown. Hahaha!!!
My brother Rudy and I are embarking on a one-day trip tomorrow, June 9th, that will take us first to Ormoc, then to Tacloban via the north-western side, and on to the other end of San Juanico bridge which is Samar already, make a quick U-turn thereafter and continue our return trip back to Ormoc via Baybay.
Passing through Baybay is going to be sentimental journey, of sorts, as this is where we were all, practically, born, grew up and finished high school. We will be passing by the old house, which I think is still standing up, and where we all have, individually, our own unforgettable memories.
One can’t help feeling nostalgic looking at the house. It has now become a grade school and quarters, at the same time, for the Protestant pastor running the school.
Where there used to be a big yard with banana trees, coconut trees, and other fruit bearing trees, and also a half-basketball court, now stands a Protestant church.
The last time my bother and I went to the site of the old house and got permission to see the inside once again, I was so emotionally struck that tears welled from my eyes. The three big rooms were still there, the alternating hardwood floor of dark and light colored boards, which we used to polish by foot with a coconut husk, were still intact and the ceilings were still the same.
The only difference was that the big stairs fronting the road was now facing the other way around, the back.
The old house is the only remaining personal link now we have in Baybay. For as long as this house stands and looks the same way it has looked when we were living in it, we shall continue having affinity and longing for it. For as long as it exists it will remain a silent testament of our youth’s happiness and sorrows, triumphs and defeats, successes and frustrations, sadness and laughter.
It is where it all started. The springboard of our dreams.
It was our home. Like a homing pigeon, this is always where we came back in our youth. This was our nest of comfort, of joy, of security, of nourishment and of togetherness.
have a safe and happy trip… what baybay is to you is what greenhills will always be to us… and there is just no better place – no matter the places and heights you reach – like home…
Today was Rudy’s last day with us. Like anything that comes to an end, his visit, too, has ended. Eton and I took him to the airport late this morning for his flight back to the U.S.
Ma’s house is once again quiet.
It’s back to reality and normalcy in our lives after practically 3 weeks of enjoyable food, funny stories when we were growing up, laughter, going to the mall for groceries, visiting cempark, a quick excursion south of Cebu, having ma’s hearing aid repaired, a visit to the dentist for ma and Gang’s dental care, a moment of anxiousness over ma’s health when she suffered from indigestion and a one day trip to Leyte.
This trip to Leyte, starting in Ormoc City going to Tacloban, via Kananga, was something educational for Rudy and me. It was only now, already in our 60s, that we learned that along the way are some Japanese shrines in honor of Japanese soldiers who died in World War ll. Kananga, Carigara and Villaba, among others, saw fierce fighting between American and Japanese forces with the latter defending their strongholds.
Famous of these place are the Buga-buga hills. These shrines are frequently visited by big Japanese memorial tour groups. These areas are said to be the subject of bone hunting expeditions in the past and object of pilgrimage by domestic and foreign tourists until now.
We were lucky to have found a car-for-hire driver who related to us and took us to these historical spots.
This, I think, is the highlight of Rudy’s visit with us this time, not to mention marveling the sight of the San Juanico bridge.
Until next time Oger. Have a pleasant and safe trip.
On the same day that my brother Rudy (Oger, to me) leaves for the U.S., my granddaughter Amaya will be celebrating her 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday, little girl!
We called her early this morning and I heard her saying happy birthday, I think, to herself this time. She probably thought, yesterday I was saying it for you, today I am saying it for me! For those who do not know, there is only 2 hours separating our birthdays. Do I have to tell you our zodiac signs?
She was pretty excited having balloons in her room and some toys she already received. In fact she was already playing the harmonica and the tambourine for me this morning.
As Mommy Pie and I were talking to her, her papa Rodin was probably 30,000 ft in the air flying from Cebu to be with her on her special day.
As am writing this, Amaya’s mother, Angie, must be very busy in the kitchen preparing some food to be serve for Amaya’s guests when they converge at the Philam village playground this afternoon.
Among the birthday celebrant’s special guests will be Kuya Klaus and baby Maive.
Cheers and wishes for many, many more birthdays for Amaya girl!
Prayers for Bianca who, in spirit, will be at Amaya’s side all the time!
It has been a weekend of mixed emotions. Melancholic, happy, anxious, reflective.
It started with Oger’s departure back to Jacksonville, Florida.
After doing practically the same things daily, for three weeks, late in the afternoon and just before dinner, like drinking beer with fried angulas (small bolinao) or fried squid or peanuts and dried salami for an appetizer, and then, after dinner, you just sit around telling stories, reminiscing the past and having a good laugh and all of a sudden the practice stops, it gets awhile before you get jolted that it is back to reality. Happy days are gone and you miss the fun.
What is consoling, as always, is that you have your own family to go to, who takes over and makes the transition to reality soothing.
For a long time now we have known that Angie was leaving on a month-long observation study in one of Australia’s pediatric hospitals specially focusing on pain management.
We had been anxious all along because she will be separated from her daughter this long and we all know how difficult it is going to be for mother and daughter who have been having teacher-student relationship and have been playmates all these two years of Amaya’s life.
I know exactly how it feels because there were times, when Angie was still a kid in Cebu and I was working in Zamboanga, that we can’t somehow speak to each other but just let the precious minutes pass by while hearing each other sob.
It is going to be hard, but we have it all planned already how we can assuage the month long separation so that life for both will be easier, enjoyable and still fruitful.
Well, another main event coming soon is Chavi’s decision to finally end his solo life and take on a partner (a girl, of course!) for life.
Am happy for him but at the same time reflective because I no longer will have, at my beck and call, a partner, a collaborator, an assistant and a buddy that will make sure I get down safely from a tree which I end up later having difficulty climbing down. He has rescued me in a tight fix up the tree several times in the past.
But like they say, you lose one, you gain one.
Mix emotions. Everything to be remembered, while we can.
De aqui hasta el mes de Agosto, casi cada uno de nosotros en la familia tenemos nuestros programas de vuelo. Between now until the month of August, nearly every one of us in the family will have our own flying schedule. We have never seen any thing like this before when so many flights are booked for so short a span of time.
Today Angie leaves for Australia and will be away for a month. She has been psyching up/conditioning Amaya’s mind on this and the little girl, 2 years old at that, seems to understand it, although, at the end, the latter also seems to be telling her mother that it is all okay, but better if her Papa and her Yaya are to go instead.
My heart bleeds for my granddaughter and so my wife booked me for a flight to Manila on June 27th. Amaya’s “morning pappoch” on all hours of the day and her hugging and kissing the phone when we both talk incoherently, though, nevertheless, have understanding of one another has prompted me to start packing my things already. I do not know how good and successful will I be in taking her mind off her mother, but,looks like the little girl has already an array of books in her “library” prepared for our reading periods. Vamos a ver quien le vendra el sueño primero? Supongo que va ser yo!
I will be in Manila for three days. I doubt very much if I can do some blogging at all. To make sure that I will be at par with Amaya’s alertness during the day, am bringing along some pills that will help me have a sound sleep in the evening. This has always been my problem. New place, new bed, new environment always disrupts my sleeping pattern.
A few days after I am back in Cebu, the gang of Iñaki, minus wife Ay, will be visiting us for a short vacation and guess who are coming also? Rodin and Amaya!
Am sure there will be ruckus everyday with Klaus, Maive and Amaya in the same place. It’s not like they are always together in Manila. Am sure, too, that the house will be converted into an instant play ground, but, what the heck, they can make all the mess and turn the place inside out, at the end it is still a home! Am curious if Amaya will still be looking for her mama during these days.
After a little over a week, they will all fly back to Manila.
We are just thankful that Iñaki and the children’s visit have coincided with Angie’s trip. At least Amaya will be in the company of her cousins and somehow her attention will get diverted rather than having a situation wherein she would be feeling alone and will be constantly reminded of her mama. I do not know how the evenings will go though.
Accompanying Iñaki’s entourage when they fly back to Manila will be Mommy Pie. What this means is that Amaya will have another companion to be invited to her “library” when she goes back home. Mommy Pie will stay for four days entertaining the little girl.
Then it won’t be long until Angie arrives. We will see if by then Amaya shall have learned to say, “Welcome back mama!”
Que hay en Agosto? Pues tendrais que esperar queridos lectores. Lo escribire otro dia.
We are eagerly expecting the arrival of the young members of the “demolition” gang tomorrow from Manila accompanied by Rodin and Iñaki, fathers both, but less Angie and Ay, both mothers of the young ones, who have work commitments.
They will be lying low for a while upon arrival, not only feeling a little tired from the trip, but mutely observing and making out where they have landed and perceiving if the territory is friendly.
Once they all sense the familiarity of the place, am pretty sure all hell will break loss and a grand ruckus will commence!
Starting tomorrow I will be abdicating my throne as head of the family and have my grandchildren reign for the duration of their stay. It is not always that they are here at the same time. There are just three of them, but you might as well assume that there are six of them!
They will be the King and Queens of my domain as I watch them rule the days, disorganizing things with impunity and following it with noise barrage.
But it will always be a welcome display of playful abandon of freedom!
All these do not mean, though, that I shall be having plenty of time in my hands to be blogging. Not really. I could end up being a referee or umpire, of sorts, which could be a whole day job ending late in the evening.
After nearly a couple of riotous weeks, we are back to our own selves in the house. Iñaki and his gang flew back to Manila and after all the crying and shouting and tantrums from the kids what you hear now is simply a deafening silence.
I cleaned the house yesterday and everywhere are still litters of toys, books, slippers and some clothes that are normally left behind until they come back again, and that is if it still fits them when they do come back for another vacation.
You seem to be hearing their voices but it is actually your mind trying to refresh whatever memories you remember them doing. The funny moments, incomprehensible words they utter, the endearing words they call you and the cause of petty quarrels between them. You can’t help being reflective and how you wish you have a bigger compound that could turn to an instant playground for them to let go of their energy, to frolic and enjoy.
Now I am back bringing Mommy Pie to work alone. I don’t have Maive anymore coming forward from the back seat and giving me her head every time I shout “cabeza!” She knows I have to hold her head and pull her ears with the crook of my arm. It is part of our morning drive ritual.
And while we are on the road, that same moment, we are visualizing Klaus slothfully eating his breakfast while watching cartoons on TV and Iñaki egging him on to eat, “come ya”, “pronto.” This, too, is a morning ritual that goes between father and son.
If there is one person getting excited and, perhaps, feeling ecstatic about tomorrow, it is no other than little girl Amaya. After over two weeks of observation in one of the children hospital in New South Wales, Australia, Angie is finally coming home.
Knowing how attached mother and daughter is to one another, the relatively short separation must have been felt like interminable to the mother, while to Amaya it was good reason enough to be grumpy, as days went by, and more clingy to her Ate Rica, who has served to be an adequate stand-in for Angie.
Makes one wonder what is in Amaya’s 2-year old mind about her mom not being able to be with her physically all these times. Why could she still see her mom talking to her in the computer and yet continue to be absent when she wakes up in the morning? Why all of a sudden, in the middle of the day, she is handed the cellphone because her mom is at the other end of the line?
It pays to have a proxy like Rica who has the patience, the intelligence and the commitment to follow well instructions on what to do with Amaya while Angie is away.
But I think what is magical really is the modern technology – the computer, the cellphone – where in an instant you can see or hear the person you are missing most and you love to be with.
Reminds me of Iñaki in the early 80s. Nothing yet of the IT we have now. I was with Purefoods then and was sent to Marikina for training at their abattoir and processing plant. It was going to be a long absence from home and it was heartbreaking to be separated from your family and Iñaki in particular, who was walking and learning to talk already. Boy, how I missed him!
And so it passed that after a few months my training finally ended. Can’t wait to go home. It was all Iñaki in my mind.
After landing in Cebu, took a taxi going to San Vicente village, where we used to stay with my in-laws. As the taxi entered San Nicolas St., there I saw Iñaki, chubby, white skinned with long blond hair, outside the house and on the street playing.
Told the taxi driver to stop, got out and started running towards Iñaki with tears streaming down my face. I called his name and as I got down in front of him, he looked at me and said, “Nganong hilak man ka?” (Why are you crying?)
I didn’t know what to do next, whether to cry more or to laugh out loud!
Will Angie be crying as soon as she sees Amaya? You bet! Especially if the little one blurts out, “Welcome back home mama!”
I feel the same way about Klaus even if I get to talk to him on the cellphone when I’m away for more than two days….With Maive now, it makes two of them. Good thing I am no longer required to be away in my area of coverage and the most I am out of the house is for overnight trips.
Funny. White skin, blonde hair, and the Visayan tongue! hehehehe
Funny, indeed! These are the ages when you won’t want them out of your sight or you will be missing a lot. It could be new words, new songs, new antics learned. It could even be their cries. But nothing can make you more lonely than not feeling their touch, not hearing them laugh, not being able to embrace them. Now you know what I mean! Your turn.
I can’t imagine it has been 40 years ago since three intrepid men made that historic trip, landed and got down on the surface of the moon to make that “One small step for man….” famous announcement that made the whole world beam with pride, watching in awe!
Can’t seem to believe that 40 years ago, I was in Quang Tri, Vietnam stealing a glimpse of the astronaut’s fateful journey to the moon being shown on TV. It was a rainy night and it was my turn to stand watch around the perimeter where Mobile Construction Battalion 11 (MCB-11) hutches were constructed and located. Under my poncho, I was in my complete battle gear.
40 years? Could have been 40 years now really, if you reckon it by the way you have wrinkled, your more-salt-than-pepper hair, your whitish beard, your eye-bags, the creaks and cracks and pain in some parts of your bone structure, particularly your joints.
40 years? There is no imagining really when you start seeing white hair growing now on your children’s head. Poor guys, but that is how long it has been!
40 years? Do you still have to ask, when reality has dawn that you are now a pensioner?
This has been a blissful week for us. Good news has been sneakily passed on from a confidential source to our youngest son Chavi, telling him that he made it to the Shangrila academy in China (Zhuhai?).
Chavi’s hard work, amiable demeanor, helpful and non-complaining attitude, coupled with his being truly a team person with leadership potential, all these, seem to have paid off at his Shangrila Cebu front office assignment.
We are happy for Chavi. To be rewarded with this privilege to attend a hotel institute abroad where they train future leaders of the industry is a fulfillment of a dream by any upstart who has plans of growing with the company and building his own niche.
We congratulate Chavi for this honor and distinction given him. For a “late bloomer son”, as Angie describes him, it is not bad at all!
Soar up and aim high always, Chavi, for that is the only way to get ahead and out of the corporate jungle of individual competitions. Believe in yourself that you can weather out crisis while on flight, in the same way that your belief in God has never faltered.
But, while you are up there, remember those on the ground who, in one way or another, cooperated and gave their best to assist you in your smooth ascend, trusting that where you will be, so should be their path to follow, with your help.
We are expecting the arrival of Angie and Amaya tomorrow, Aug. 12th.
We are excited to see them both but since Amaya has learned a lot more antics than the last time she was here, then we are more interested at what she has to show us.
From Angie, we heard she is now at that stage where her “no’s” are more than her “si’s” when you have her do something.
She is also at that stage where because of her “no’s”, as in “no mama”, she thinks she can assert and do away with what she wants.
They will be here until after Chavi’s wedding on Aug. 18th. But, that will be another piece written.
Again as we have them at home I may not be able to write as much as I want to. My time will be with them unless Amaya, of course, follows her routine of regular sleeping hours.
August 18th will be a red letter day for Chavi. Not only will it be his birthday, but on this day he has decided to tie the knot with Maisy and start being a husband to his wife. Like his Lola says, “Ah, es justo ya. Ya tiene edad!”
Like his brother Iñaki before him and, myself, we all got hitched at about the same ripe age and, “shockingly”, for the same reason.
Angie and Amaya are here now. Rodin will be arriving today, Sunday, Aug. 16th.
We are expecting Iñaki and family to arrive on the 17th.
It will be a short family gathering, of sorts, with ours accepting a new female member.
Paz and I will be marching off our youngest and the last of the siblings to matrimony. We can only wish him and Maisy the best of luck and all the happiness that this world can muster as they embark on this journey together. Reality, however, is that along the way there will be agonizing moments, too. This is what will temper the union such that the determination to succeed will be stronger and more keen.
2009 has been a relatively good year for us. It has been a blissful year, thanks God.
We can only hope that there will be many, many more of these years coming for all of us.
When Iñaki got married, I bought me a pair of new black leather slip-on shoes. I never did liked one with lace on my shoes and I’ve never been a fan of black colored shoes either. But, for this occasion I needed one to go with my dark pants and for once, look elegant myself.
Am not really a good dresser but I sure know what is comfortable for me and what looks good on me. Found this pair of shoes that I got so enamored at first sight and feel. It was soft and light with semi-hard sole and the fit was just perfect!
It was classy but pricey, after all, it was Pab Der, made in Italy! For my first born’s wedding, it would be a pleasure wearing it. I kiss my many pesos good-bye. Besides, I was thinking, Angie and Chavi were not really far behind and I could still have the shoes in tip-top shape during their own hanging,..I mean wedding!
And so Iñaki and Ay’s wedding took place and I was so proud of my shoes. After all, it was Pab Der, made in Italy!
When we got home after the wedding, I took it off, put a ball of socks inside the shoes to maintain its shape and placed the pair inside a plastic bag and kept it inside the closet. It will reappear again if ever their will be special occasions and I am forced to wear it.
There wasn’t until two years after. This time it was Angie’s turn to march down the aisle. Of course I have to look good and proud to be showing off again my nice shoes. After spit-shining it, I had it commissioned for the occasion. I was so comfortable wearing it and taking Angie to where the groom, Rodin, was.
When we got home after the wedding, I took it off and did the same ritual to it as I did after Iñaki’s wedding. I was ogling at it and appreciating the looks of it and the pleasure it gave me wearing it. After all, it was still Pab Der, made in Italy!
Once the shoes was kept inside the closet, I was wondering when the next special occasion would be before I could wear it again. The shoes still looked brand new. Its form and shape was still holding on beautifully.
Little did I know that four years after our only girl’s wedding, Paz and I will be surprised by the youngest of the three siblings, Chavi, that he, too, has decided to join what “God has put together, let no man put asunder” or something of that sort!
So, I said, well, why not, you may be the youngest but you are already old and I have a pair of still brand new looking shoes for the occasion. Or so I thought!
August 18th came and we were all excited. Iñaki and Angie, with their respective families, flew all the way from Manila to accompany us march Chavi off to marriage with Maisy and celebrate this grand occasion of seeing the youngest of them all flying out of the coop to start building his own.
And so my Pab Der shoes, made in Italy, made once again its promising appearance. It was still looking good despite developing molds here and there. I cleaned and spit-shined it once again, as I was preparing to wear it. What I have noticed though when I was shining it was that there was a chip on the side-sole portion of the left shoe and the chipped material was left inside the bag.
It never occurred to me that this small chip was the beginning of the end of my “dear” Pab Der shoes, made in Italy!
I only realized completely what was happening to my shoes when I arrived at the church, after driving from home. I got out of the car and the first thing I did was look at my shoes. I can’t believe what I was seeing! My shoe soles were simply falling apart! It was crumbling! It was self-destructing!
How could this happen to my Pab Der shoes, made in Italy?
It was something bizarre, yet laughable.
It was shocking, as it was funny.
In my own eyes I was seeing a comedy of horror at my own shoes and while I was wearing it.
Good that there were just very few invited guests. Nobody was at the back to notice it every time I have to knelt.
I left traces every where I went. From the church grounds to the red carpeted and elevated floor near the altar where we had our pictures taken. From the tiled second floor of the Crua Thai restaurant, where we were toasting the newly wed couple, to my mothers house.
I just could not explain how much pulverized, grayish debris I took out from the mat of my car as a result of rubbing the sole of my shoes upon the clutch, brake and accelerator.
I got out of the house with my shoes still complete with heels and sole. I returned home feeling like I was wearing a boxer’s fighting shoes, only that mine was half-cut and without lace.
It was good while it lasted and, sad to say, it made its last appearance.
That’s the story of my Pab Der shoes, made in Italy, after six years.
hahahahahahahahaha!!! that was the funniest thing to happen that day! 🙂 that will be one for the books.. a story to be recounted over and over and, of course, laughed about!Good bye Pab Der… I hope the brown Florsheim will not meet the same fate!
I’ve learned my lesson. The brown Florsheim as well as the other pair of “expensive kuno” nga zapatos are alternating in visiting Ayala and SM malls every time occasion warrants. Will have that Pab Der shoes, or what is left of it, mounted for display!
Days before he has been completing his requirements for his travel to Zhuhai, China where he will be on schooling at the Shangrila Academy. He was also buying stuffs to complete his personal effects.
It was good that wife Maisy had this huge luggage which could accommodate all his things to take, including his brand new suit, for a month’s stay overseas. I feel sorry for Maisy for staying behind when they got married only very recently. But, there is one infamous word popularized by my brother Eton that explains it all and the word is, “Maná.” (A contraction of the word, humana). Finished! Consummatum est!
In between Chavi had also to collect his ration of a sack of rice and bring it home. Thanks, Chavi, you know this will go a long way and many more mouths will get to partake this rice.
As you all know, we already sold the Nissan Sentra that Chavi had. It was a turned-over car from Iñaki when he got a new replacement. That car was good while it lasted with us. It served us well, especially Chavi, though it gave him a big scar on his forehead that will forever remind him of the day he thought he was already in bed. Don’t really miss the car as much as I felt the loss then of our volksvagen or the Renault we had when the kids were small. The pain. The anguish. It invoked bad memories.
But, you never count out my old, reliable, a rotting already Mazda as a substitute. This is our sole “beast of burden” now until Iñaki, again, sends us his Honda which is due for replacement anytime soon. We cannot thank Iñaki enough.
I seem to have navigated away from my intended topic already.
What am just letting everybody know is that Chavi left for China, via Manila and Hongkong today.
Finally he has flown and at the expense of Shangrila.
Maisy, temporarily, does not have a husband and me and Paz will miss not having our “on-call” assistant.
Today, 9/11, mark my brother Angel’s 44th death anniversary. Had he lived he would have been 73 years old.
I wonder how he would have looked like. I don’t know if his hair would have been whiter as Eton’s or Rudy’s. One thing am sure is that he will still be sporting a crew-cut haircut. He had this kind of hair cut only after he joined the Air Force. I remember he used to have a long hair when he was studying in Cebu and we were kids in Baybay. One time he changed it, aping what came as a vogue in those days. We were all laughing when, one time, he came home with long hair on both sides of his head and short, flat at the top. I remember I had that same haircut too growing up in my teens but it was papa’s coño, expressed everytime he sees my head that made me go back eventually to the barber to have it re-done.
44 years have gone by and I still remember vividly every single moment I was with him or he was with us. From the time he was forcibly throwing us farther into the sea so we would learn how to swim, to the time when we both sat together at the pier in Baybay drinking tuba before getting aboard the boat that would take us to Cebu. From the time he went looking for me around Baybay with a bike only to find me at a neighbor’s house (ma thought I run away from home because pa punched me and so she made Angel look for me) to the somber moments we had at the stairs of our house in Sudlon talking about my leaving for Manila to pursue my studies when he was being transferred to Cebu. This was the last time we were together.
My only consolation in all these years is that I am able still dream about Angel. I always dream of him as he was, young, stocky, tough and handsome – the way I last talked to him.
Amazing that in your dreams, you don’t get to be old too!
It has been three days now that Iñaki, Klaus and Maive, sans wife Ay, have arrived in Cebu to spend around two weeks of vacation with us.
The kids are growing fast and it is always a welcome riot to have them with us.
Every time they come you see changes in them- changes in their looks, their heights, their demeanor, the degree of mischievousness they have attained, their antics, their vocabulary, etc., all these to ones amazement and pleasure.
Klaus is sporting a crew cut that enhances more prominently his eyebrows, not to mention his good looks. Maive on the other hand is the spitting image, the “vivo retrato” of her naughty father!
It is always music to any grandparent’s ears when you hear grandchildren calling your pet name the way only they can say. You always feel triumphant when you can fool them, to make them hug you and give you a kiss! Hahaha! Poor Maive!
Everyone is looking forward, however, to Chavi’s arrival on Sunday from China. While we miss his absence physically, what softens up the feeling is the fact that we see him on-line in webcam. It looks like he is enjoying and doing well at the Shang-rila academy, and having great pleasure at seeing part of giant China.
After two weeks of “children anarchy” we are again left to ourselves with a deafening silence to boot.
Iñaki and his two “rebels” left for Manila late afternoon yesterday. Klaus was a little bit subdued in the car, while baby Maive was counting up to 10 and singing medley kid songs that she alone could understand.
When the swing at the backyard is still and nobody starts shouting expletives and warnings like, “cuidao!, sucio ese!, despacio!, te va a mordir el perro!,” it could only mean the kids are gone and Gardog can take his rest.
When things on the table remains untouched and the floor is free of litter, then you are finally sure the two “activists” are no longer in the house.
Realization finally sets in when the following day you don’t hear anybody prodding Klaus to finish up his breakfast and no more sounds of Barney can be heard entertaining baby Maive.
Anyway, we are just very thankful that when the flood struck Manila and suburbs, Klaus and Maive were with us. We were all worried and feeling bad for Ay who was left wading in breast-depth flood waters saving what she could. Her car got flooded.
It could have been worse had the kids been there. It was consolation enough however, that Iñaki’s car didn’t suffer the same fate as Ay’s.
Thankfully, Angie and Amaya, their car and their home were in safer grounds.
Our thoughts and prayers continue for those who suffered the worst. Only by having strong faith in God can we overcome such difficulties in life.
Happy to say that my own branch of the family tree is getting bigger! No, not by leaps and bounds, but slowly, as in, “finally another one!” Or, “wow, got you this time!” Or, “dah, igo ka lagi!”
Chavi and Maisy are expecting the stork sometime in March. Salamat Ginoo nga dili Febrero! This is a family secret we all share.
Very recently also, Angie calmly informed us that she is on the family way! Looks like that trip to Thailand made wonders for Rodin! Could just imagine Amaya’s reaction once she sees the bulge on her ma’s stomach and feels the movements later!
Looks like that is it for Iñaki and Ay. With the impish Klaus and bubbly baby Maive all over, who needs another one?
At any rate, whatever God wills, we welcome it. It is a blessing to have what we have and grateful for whoever and whatever the number that comes along.
Nothing much is happening within the family circle. Every member is working hard, “como Dios manda,” and every one is doing well. All are stable, hoping the best is still to come.
Iñaki and Ay are so caught up with corporate work that they come home late at night already. But for as long as concern for work and children are balanced or slightly favoring a little the welfare of the kids, then trying to build up financially for the family’s future is only understandable.
Klaus will be enrolling in Grade 1 proper next school year. How time flies! He deserves a good school for the kind of head he has got. Hope by then he shall have learned to eat his breakfast faster.
Maive must have increased her vocabulary already and using it for survival against Klaus asserting herself. One time I turned on my overhead bed radio and was jolted with the very loud music that I automatically screamed Maive’s name as she was the last one who touched it. I was laughing after knowing that I was just simply missing her antics.
Angie and Rodin are equally busy with their lives too. Good that Rodin has his office practically where he lives and can see Amaya most of the time.
Angie has to play ‘hide-and-seek’ with Amaya sometimes just so she could finally wrap up her PhD. She is immersed in her practicum with cancer afflicted children conducting pain therapy to them so it will easier for them to cope with the disease in their body. It could be stressing and distressing to be facing sickly kids especially when you know that it is the degree of gravity of their illness that will determine whether you will see them again the following meeting or not.
Amaya seems to be doing pretty good, showing off her ability to use the right words for the right thought and at the right time and has discovered already the sense of reasoning. It looks like she can carry on now having a conversation. Let us see who gets outwitted between the two bright heads.
Every now and then we see Chavi and Maisy visiting us. Little by little they are filling up their apartment with things. Maisy is a little heavy now with what she is carrying and knowing that it is a girl, both are busy looking/searching in the internet for an appropriate name.
Looks like a noisy future stored for us in 2010. The expression, ‘the more the merrier’ is a welcomed one.
Yesterday, November 6, 2009 was a momentous day for my Quierosaber blog site and I would like to share with you why.
When I started the Quierosaber blog site a year ago it was simply for the purpose of keeping my sanity intact.
I know my limitations as a writer but being able to express freely about anything in a genre of publication that allows people all over the world to access is a panacea to me.
Venting my varied moods in writing has given me satisfaction regardless of what comments I may get from the readers. Like I said in the outset, mine was not to create an argument. Mine was simply to articulate the best way I can on subjects I choose to write whether or not it is agreeable to the readers.
I have written over 300 blogs on wide-ranging topics generating clicks and comments, not to mention spams, from a global readership and this has given me the impetus to keep on posting knowing that there are people out there who have become followers of Quierosaber. Not so many, mind you, but enough to get me motivated.
But yesterday was unlike any other day.
Yesterday became D-day for me and Quierosaber blog site.
Yesterday WordPress adjudged my blog, “Bears losing fur in Germany zoo,” as the Number 1 blog of the day! There were 1,777 viewers who clicked and read this particular post! Overall number of clicks for the day totaled 1,993.
This is the beauty of it. People get to know about Quierosaber and they are starting to read the rest of the articles I have posted in the past.
But at the same time, what it is, is a big challenge to me.
It means I don’t have to let them down.
It means that I have to prove that WordPress’ declaration yesterday of my post as the blog of the day was not a fluke.
What it simply means is that interesting articles make for a good reading.
Congrats Pa! You’ve realized the first step of getting the readers to click on your article, this in itself is already an accomplishment! They will surely be curious of your other pieces of writing as well. So, aside from keeping your sanity, you are now faced with keeping the readers interested hehehehe….now the writing juices have to flow 🙂
Thanks King. I’ve learned that you can’t do it alone posting local and national news. You just have to mix it with what Angie calls ‘international flavor.’ The truth is that you just have to keep on ‘experimenting’ what makes for a good/interesting reading.
We are in that time of the year again when we start looking forward to who can make it for Christmas and New Year with us.
There is nothing we dread more than spending Christmas by our own lonely selves. It is not that we cannot live through it, but, hey, ever since Iñaki was born 35 years ago, there were always more than just Paz and I all the time.
Thankfully Chavi and Maisy are just a bridge away.
Glad to know that Angie and Amaya will be arriving in mid-December.
We are all eager to see the transformation of Amaya from the last time she was here until now that she has learned to use the power of speech.
We had been ‘talking’ to her and I could see her mind working far ahead, that it takes a “rapid talk” catching up with what her brains want her to say.
Until now we do not know when Iñaki and family are coming. We are excited to see what kind of conversation Klaus and Maive, who is also picking up lots of words now, will have with Amaya! Looks like am already hearing some cuss words!
By the way, we just learned that Klaus has passed his entrance exams today for Senior Kinder in an exclusive school. In fact, I thought that the exams were set for yesterday so that I was way ahead with my prayers already. The more prayers you ‘deposit,’ the more rewarding it is, perhaps!
Congratulations, Leif Nicholas! We are proud of you! Boy, what a long road you have ahead! Or am I just too old already?
We heard that Iñaki and Ay will also undergo interview by the school. Hope they will not let Klaus down! Don’t worry we’ll pray for you also!
The family was treated with a TV special early yesterday morning, Nov 29th.
ABS-CBN’s program ‘Salamat, Doc,’ aired every Sunday morning at 7:30, featured Angie and a colleague on the subject about pain management among kids, especially those suffering from acute or chronic pains and cancer patients.
Everybody was glued on their TV sets, including 96 years old paternal grandmother, Lola Vicing, who can’t stop praising Angie as “popolar na kaayo!”
Well, we were definitely excited and proud to see and hear how Ms. Angie and Dr. Kim handled articulately all the questions thrown alternately at them.
While Dr. Kim emphasized the medical procedure of handling pain in children, Ms. Angie, on the other hand, underlined the importance of assuaging pain by psychological therapies.
While we were happy to see that the program was very informative and that all went well, we could not help, however, but feel sad for the patients – the children, who are suffering the anguish and uncertainties of their young lives.
Hi, I’m the editor for filipinovoices.com, one of the leading political blogs in The Philippines. I have been reading your blog for quite some time now.
I would like to ask if you would like to contribute and become a regular writer for us.
please email me nick@tingog.com, I can discuss with you the specific details.
We are back to ourselves again. Like anything else, holidays has also its beginning and end.
We enjoyed very much Angie and Amaya’s stay with us.
I don’t recall the siblings Iñaki, Angie and Chavi being “adorable” yappers or babblers or tattletales growing up, but this girl Amaya just won’t stop talking as soon as she wakes up in the morning. Her voice is like a bee buzzing early in the morning! But what a welcome sound!
At 2 years old, Amaya could carry very well a conversation with grown ups. She always has a ready answer for your questions and her own questions to you are open-ended ones.
Funny thing is that she is so smart she knows when you are making fun of her and she answers you in kind.
Angie and Amaya left for Manila yesterday and the house is not the same.
After taking them to the airport I came back home and I felt like I was getting into the wrong house. Nobody was interrogating me: “Anong gawa mo, papooch? Saan ka galing, papooch?
Here is one story I have to tell you though. I chanced upon her one early evening with her Ate Tang about to put her pajama on. While the Yaya was preparing what Amaya was going to wear, I said, “cover that ‘thing’, I don’t want to look at it.” You know, with an elfish look on her face, she looks at me and says, “ sabi moning, hello pappoch!” (Moning is the word she uses for that “thing”). O, man, what a fertile imagination this baby has! I just got out of the room with a loud guffaw, unbelieving what I have heard!
We will surely and sorely be missing Amaya’s antics.
How I wish Iñaki and Ay’s kids, Klaus and Maive, were with us during the holidays. We missed them too.
But Paz and I sure relish with eager anticipation the fact that December 2010, God willing, there will be two more babies celebrating Christmas with us!
Chavi and Maisy are expecting their first born pretty soon in January, a girl, and Rodin and Angie, are awaiting their second in May!
I can only ask God for a safe delivery and thank Him for these additional blessings.
Towards noon yesterday, Jan. 26th, baby Maitina, the much awaited first born of Chavi and Maisy, finally made her first appearance with a shout and by her voice made known, to all and sundry, her existence!
It took quite a long time for Maisy to deliver, checking in at around 5:00 p.m., on the 25th and laboring until the following day.
What was amazing though, but not quite a surprise, was Maisy’s determination to deliver the baby naturally. And she did it! Wow!
For a while I thought she would opt to be cut up like the rest of the ‘womenfolk’ in our family, starting from Mommy Pie, but perseverance prevailed at the end.
Who does baby Maitina look like? Let’s put it this way. It’s still too early to tell, but she is very fair and has a beautiful soft, silky brown hair on her head. Because of the family’s prominent noses, well poor Maitina could not be denied of having the same ‘trademark.’ If anything, it’s the x-factor that will define her beauty, just like those before her.
We joyfully welcome baby Maitina as our fourth grand child, after Klaus, Amaya and Maive.
We have now one boy and three girls…..and counting!
In two days time my brother, Oger, a.k.a. Rudy, will be arriving from the US. He is a retired anesthesiologist from Jacksonville, Florida and every year, about this time, he comes home.
It is always a happy homecoming for him, eagerly anticipated by all immediate relatives, especially my 95-going-96-year old mother. We always innervate and egg her on to live longer each day until Rudy arrives. She always has a good time with her favorite son around.
The house will be full again with Oger’s presence. There will be noise, laughter and abundance of food.
It will be smoke and drinks of beer every afternoon again and fried dried small “pusit” or tiny “bolinao” for “pulotan.”
Together with another elder brother, Eton, we are all senior citizens now. We spend the afternoons together, bonding for whatever time there is left for us to stay together.
We realize now that our sunset years will no longer be as long as the sunrise years we all had had, individually, and with our own respective family.
I have not been blogging lately if you will notice.
My time these days belong to my son Iñaki and kids, Klaus and Maive, who seldom comes to Cebu for a visit. They are giving ‘spice’ to our, otherwise, quiet uneventful lives.
Not that Chavi, Maisy and baby Maitina is not making our lives exciting, but the latest addition is still so small to make remarkable difference. We still have to wait and see what enjoyable antics she has stored for us. We always look forward seeing them at their place in Mactan every time it is Chavi’s day-off.
The more that I won’t be having time to blog when Angie and Amaya arrive toward the end of this week.
It is going to be a full house, not counting that my brother Oger is still around and needs to be accompanied every now and then.
It’s not always like this for us. In fact this seldom happens that we are planning to have a family picture taken for posterity, while everybody is here.
Meanwhile, I ask my reader’s indulgence while inviting them to feel the feeling of happiness that we shall be experiencing when all are here.
Can’t simply be oblivious to what is going on around me. They came for us and they deserve our attention.
We are back to ourselves now – in peace and quiet again.
First it was Iñaki and family that left for Manila, then Angie and Amaya followed suit.
We will probably see them again when Angie gives birth sometime in May. It will be us flying over.
My brother, Oger, also left for the US a few days ago after spending three weeks with our 96-year old mother. One has just to make sure that both their hearing aides are functioning or there will be shouting matches!
Oger says he was going to light up a candle at the image of “la virgin de la leche y buen parto” for Angie’s safe delivery.
There is a little noise every now and then in the house when Chavi and Maisy visits us with their baby Maitina. The latter is growing fast.
Let me greet once again everybody – family, relatives, friends, blog followers and even enemies – a joyous Easter!
Easter is the day of rejoicing that follows the sorrow of Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
For most Christians, Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It bears witness to God’s enduring promise of eternal life.
But, above all Easter is a message which proclaims the triumph of love over hate and of life over death.
This year, being an election year, it is my ardent wish that the significance of Easter will also touch every Filipino’s heart in ensuring that good men will triumph over the wicked and the honorable over the unworthy, so that we, as people, no longer be tormented by good-for-nothing egoistic leaders who merely stands as symbols of greed, chaos, despair and hopelessness.
After successfully defending her dissertation proposal, Angie is now declaring herself an authentic and genuine Ph D candidate!
We would like to congratulate Angie for this remarkable achievement. After years of hard work and sacrifice, the future now looks brighter and more promising for Angie.
In the same way that this is a big relief for Angie, studying and working through it even in between pregnancy and delivery, it is likewise comforting for us knowing that everyone is now free from stress.
Well, not quite really, yet. One more and last visit by the stork is coming up!
There is one more hurdle that the Ph D candidate has to make in her personal and married life. This could be the icing on the cake!
Angie is now heavy with a baby and is set to deliver by CS on May 12th.
We are all looking forward to D-day and inviting all and sundry to join us in our prayers for a safe and successful delivery.
2010, no doubt, is Angie’s year. It is putting a definitive period to her student’s days that until now boggles Chavi’s mind as to why she loves studying so much.
Not too many people can prize themselves with a baby for finishing the highest academic degree a university can bestow upon you.
Yesterday, April 24, 2010, marked a milestone in Maitina’s (Chavi and Maisy’s first born) life. It was the day she was baptized and formally ushered in and formally admitted into the community of Christians.
It was done at San Roque parish in Subang-daku, Mandaue – the same church where her parents and grandparents got married and where Iñaki, Angie and Chavi got baptized too.
Maitina, with her usual frown, was probably wondering where she was and what was happening to her being transported to an unfamiliar place with so many people and faces trying to call her attention.
Not only that. She was made to wear an all white dress with still a matching cap inside a cubicle with an asymmetrical and unusual, yet, beautiful looking bamboo cross.
Saw her staring and smiling at the flickering fire from a big candle as it amused her.
She probably was curious what the bald man in a robe was talking about and later pouring water on her head and making sign of the cross on her forehead.
Is he bathing me or what? I still have my clothes on!
And then it happened. There was a lot of clapping and she felt being passed on from one person or group to another and a lot of picture taking happening. Those flash bulbs were making her cross-eyed.
But in all the excitement Maitina has remained composed and very cooperative. The crowd never annoyed her.
It was the April heat that made her whimper as we all proceeded to Patio Isabel at Banilad for a celebration.
Paz left early morning today, May 11, for Manila to give Angie peace of mind about Amaya as she is going to check in at Manila Doctors Hospital for her scheduled CS delivery tomorrow.
We are anxious but at the same time happy and thankful for this new addition in the family.
This will be Angie’s second baby and understandably the last. Am sure little angel Bianca will be happy at the arrival of Mayumi and will be watching over and will always be with her and Amaya all through out their lives.
With Mayumi’s arrival, she will be fifth of our grandchildren and the youngest by far.
Am I still counting?
Well, let’s put it this way. Looks like Iñaki and Ay have come to a decision to stop at two – Klaus and Maive – both beautiful kids. Wise decision when you start talking about safety of mother and child the next time around.
That leaves Chavi and Maisy to do the humping and the bumping! Would surmise that there will be one more in the future and that is it. Lessons from what the older siblings have experience or are experiencing are all thought provoking, not counting times are hard.
Will be leaving Friday for Manila to join Paz. By then Angie and her new baby will be home.
Will be leaving for Manila to meet the new addition to the family – a little baby girl named Mayumi. She is Angie’s second child, delivered by CS on May 12th.
Mayumi is the youngest addition after Klaus, Amaya, Maive, and Maitina.
Will be back Sunday and will resume writing Monday.
Have written a couple of post-election articles that should interest you all.
Today is Amaya’s birthday. She is 3 years old now.
Can’t talk about Amaya without mentioning about twin sister Bianca who has been gone 3 years now too.
This is the reality that has to be accepted but never to be forgotten.
We are happy and consoled, just the same, by the fact that we may have lost Bianca, but we have gained an angel looking over her sister, her cousins and their respective families.
Amaya has developed into a very intelligent little girl who loves to talk and likes questioning people no end until the answer satisfies her.
She is learning a lot at home with Angie being an exceptionally good teacher for kids.
Hope when she finally goes to school that she won’t get bored as she has played and learned them all at home already.
The only problem now is that Amaya doesn’t seem too comfortable with baby Mayumi around.
She sees Mayumi as competing for the attention that has all been hers until the baby came along.
Am sure mama Angie has still some tricks under her sleeve to appease ruffled feelings.
We had all been looking forward for them to spend some time with us before Angie starts working again.
This will be Mayumi’s first trip outside of Manila.
Amaya has been feeling insecure since her baby sister’s arrival. Understandably, because the attention was always hers until Mayumi came along. Now that Angie’s attention is divided, perhaps Amaya is wondering if Mayumi’s presence and existence is a good thing. Am just trying to read the child’s mind. Am sure, in due time, she will comprehend and all be well.
Amaya is getting smarter by the day and at three is already very articulate and expressive. Even her doctor wants her intelligence tested.
What we are asking ourselves now is whether or not Mayumi will be another Amaya – curious, imaginative and philosophical?
Coming from the same mold, why not?
Noisy and entertaining duo they will be, unless the younger one comes out opposite.
Today ended the visit of Angie, Amaya and baby Mayumi with us. At 12 o’clock noon they left for Manila.
It was two weeks of fun and noise and with the house in disarray, but not without apprehensions that the kids might go down with fever after contracting colds. Good that it didn’t come to that.
While Angie and family were here , we receive good news that Klaus, Iñaki’s son, was considered for an LBC billboard advertisement. Photo shots have been done already. We are all excited and looking forward to how it will come out.
Anyway, there is nothing but silence in the house now. With Amaya gone, there is no more question and answer segment that normally take place during her waking hours.
There is no one to bargain hard with me anymore that it’s her turn to see her favorite Dora every time I turn on my evening TV news program.
On February 17, 2009 I wrote a blog about my mother. I titled it “My dotage mother.”
She was 95 years old going 96, as her birthday falls on November 10th. I wrote about her physical and mental health, the mother that I knew her to be and the inescapable death that we all have to face one day.
What a difference a year can make to ones life, especially to the sickly and the dotage.
The question now that we are all confronted with is: Can mother make it to her 97th birthday?
The fear that we all had that one day she might fall down finally happened. It eased up a little our worry knowing that she fall down while trying to stand up from a chair and not from a standing or walking position where the injury could have been worse or fatal from the impact.
Still it left her unable to walk with her left pelvic joint injured and has to be confined on a wheelchair. With severe scoliosis it was adding more pain to her already debilitated body.
Not being able to walk and having her movements restricted has taken a toll on her. With her predicament she finds it hard to have a good rest and a good night sleep.
She is getting weaker by the day. Could we be seeing the beginning of the end for ma?
We feel we are. We feel ma slipping away from our grasp. We see ma calmly resigned, finally accepting reality
Please help us pray that God will be kind to her and make her life, whatever is left of it, easier, as our dear mother prepares herself to meet HIM.
Just got back from Manila for our granddaughter Cara Mayumi’s baptism on August 14th at Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish in Philam homes, Quezon City.
Was good to see Iñaki and Angie and there respective families again! Makes one wonder what is in the passage of time that changes so fast the physical and mental growth of children? Or are they just fast catching up and getting old? Perhaps, just nature’s way of saying that what we we know now, they will know better when their time comes.
This was Maitina’s (Chavi and Maisy’s first born) first trip to Manila and enjoyed mumbling and seeing her cousins. Must have surprised her, in her own little world, why Amaya and Maive has to come to shouting matches and crying when there were books and toys all over for them to read and play with? Why would they have to like the same thing at the same time?
It was fun seeing the kids! Klaus loves the big school and he is excelling!
The only problem I had with this trip was my stomach. Looks like I have to slow down or stop all together my intake of vinegar and for a certain extent, alcohol.
Having a bad case of hyper-acidity when there is good food is never that funny.
Angie, Amaya, and Mayumi came to Cebu recently to visit their ailing Lola, my mother.
Iñaki and Klaus followed about a week after.
By the looks of it, it could be their last time to see their Lola alive. It was saying a tearful good bye for good before flying back to Manila yesterday.
Angie celebrated her birthday on August 25th, but it was a subdued one in deference to mother’s condition.
In the U.S., Angie’s cousin, Paul, a son of my brother, also celebrated his birthday on August 25th.
What is significant about August 25 is that it is the date my father died, 18 years ago.
Mother is still hanging in there, but fast slipping away. It could come any time, so much so that every time the phone rings, one crosses the fingers.
Mother would be 97 years old in November 10 – if she makes it. November, however, looks too far and seems too long for where and how she is right now.
Paul,s father, a retired doctor from Jacksonville, Florida is tending for our mother.
Sometimes, among us brothers, mother’s final day becomes a guessing game. It is our way of anesthetizing our pains of seeing her suffering, of easing tension and stress over how helpless one can be.
We thought it was going to be another gloomy August 25th, but that came to pass. Would it be September 11th, our older brother’s death anniversary?
Deep inside us, we know that even September is too long already. We are praying it will be sooner if only mother won’t have to suffer any longer.
But then it is all God’s choosing. His will be done.
😥 just breaks my heart knowing she won’t be waiting for me, seated on her chair, in her home, when i come to visit..
how good God was to allow the people who loved lola the most, her own children, to be with her, holding her hand as she went on her journey. must have been the goodbye lola wanted, as well.. how blessed that she didn’t go in pain but in peace..
96 years seems a long lifetime..yet for us left behind, those 96 years were not enough..
still u must know, pa, how lucky and happy lola must have felt to have most of her children attending to her, making sure she received the best care possible, to have u all show her love and appreciation til the very end..not all mothers will know that joy. she was right, “he tenido buenos hijos”
my love to u as we all face our grief and learn to live our lives without lola
Gracias, hija. For us who knew what she went through raising 8 of her 10 children and still being the matriarch that she was until the age of 96, left us all in awe. It was pure blessing that she lived this long to see his children age along with her and for the grandchildren to witness what she was as a person and a mother to her children.
(This is a letter Angie sent us from Hong Kong where she has been for five days now attending a play therapy seminar. This was addressed to Rodin, her mother and myself. I felt it was appropriate to published it here.)
I thought I’d just send you all the same email since its the same story 🙂
I remember after I graduated from college, i searched the net for play therapy and how i could train for it. it was much too expensive that i knew i would never be able to do it w/out financial aid..i searched for grants and the like to no avail. the organization and school i wrote to would send me brochures the next two years but when they probably realized that they i wouldnt do it, they stopped. every now and then i’d try to see what’s available in our region but it would always just be in the west.. the next best thing to do was get into a graduate course that would teach me how to deal w/ kids the best way which was why i packed my bags and went to UP and lived a very difficult – emotionally (first time away frm family & cebu ) and financially – first year.. from holes in shoes and pants to getting sick and all that. i had to go through that. it is with no regrets at all because both the education and experiences i gained as a person and as a teacher have taught me soooo much. i got into counseling in phd as that was the course that i thought would let me learn how to help children with emotional and behavioral needs in a psychotherapeutic manner. i searched for play thearpy subjs just in case but wala.i learned how to use play as a tool in therapy thru reading and experience.
when i saw this opportunity in HK, i knew by hook or by crook i had to go. i knew the names of the presenters as they are big names in the play therapy world and i knew that what id learn here would be invaluable. i was so worried as i havent had income in over a year and didnt want to deplete our savings.. i know it worries rodin but i have to thank u, dan, for being so supportive even if it has caused quite a dent in the bank account…u didnt stop me, not for a second and encouraged me to pursue it and i am very very grateful.
now that im here, i realize that God really does answer prayers..in HIS own time.. i have waited for this for 15 years and now its here…with patience, hard work and HIS guidance, i will get what ive wanted for a long time.. and i see how the pieces of the puzzle just fit so perfectly! the training i had as an early childhood educator plays a huge role in becoming a good play therapist. as i was watching the presenter do a demo and have “sessions” w/ patients, its like the wway i talk and interact with kids in the classroom. i talked to her about it over lunch and she agreed.. there are of course other issues and techniques but how amazing it is that everything ive done in the past now fit and gel into a whole!
i am looking forward to the next days and hope that i can practice eventually in manila. i have to finish my dissertation by april so that i can have DR. attached to my name and be more credible – and saleable! 🙂
there will be a 10 day course that will enable me to complete the certificate course in March2011 and i am praying that HE will bless us and allow this to happen. i will seriously have to start earning so rodin doesnt grow more white hair and worry more! hehe pa, ul have to be my bank and il have to take it a loan payable in 1year ha! 🙂 that would be around 150k… very big…
Anyhow, i just wanted to share this with you so u know how much this means to me.. it will also give me more confidence as a private practitioner… i would never be able to do this without the three of u..ur support, encouragement and love and i just wanted to say thank u very much… mader, without you there, i’d probably have anxiety attacks or i’d not even be here as i couldnt bear to leave the two little ones just like that.. it means so much to me that u are there with them and rodin gets to do his work w/o worryiing about the children too.
i have been praying for a while now for HIM to show me which path to take.. hopefully sooner than later everything will be clearer.
muchas gracias to the three of u and i love u three very much..
To Angie,
It is really wonderful and awesome that you are where you are now. It may have taken some time relative to your plans…but just right based on the GRAND plan for your life….the family support specially from Rodin is something to be really thankful for. Soon you will have your much sought after degree and a title that will be a testimony of long hours, hard work, pure grit, and solid determination you put in over the years. The kids, Ay, and I will always be there to support you….and when the time comes when we call you Doctor…pwede ikaw na lang mo-tuli kang Klaus?
muhilak na unta ko sa kalipay ug sa katouched.. di gyud gihapon madayon maskin unsaon! hahaha boang gyud!thank u, king.. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and for that i will never fail to give thanks 🙂
This is just to let all and sundry know that Klaus, Iñaki’s son, has modeled for LBC’s latest advertisement that is now shown all over the country, I suppose.
Can’t help being amused, even from afar, seeing it. Had to go out to the second Mactan bridge to find it myself.
The full view of the LBC ad can be seen on the left side, as one starts descending the bridge going to Mandaue City. It is in fact the first billboard that you will see from the left side.
Klaus did a good job being so natural in that photo. He blended so well and his acting was impeccable!
Hope this will be the beginning of many more similar opportunity that will show the boy’s talent and ensure his own better future.
I don’t think I shall be writing more blogs like I used to especially going towards December.
There is and there will be too many activities in the house that I would rather do and participate than see myself sitting and writing blogs. There is more productivity done in the former than in the latter. Unless of course there is something so weird for people to know and some newsworthy items for commenting.
Also I have fallen well behind in my reading of good books and the National Geographic magazine and I want to keep up with it again. It would have been a different thing if I was earning something from writing.
What am simply saying is that I want more time for leisure now and I got to be moving. The latter is very important for my health and well being. With my rickety knees I can’t afford just sitting and living a sedentary life. As much as possible I want to delay the use of a cane.
Well, there is no denying what the reality is. Had I not been too abusive of my body, wearing and tearing it, during my younger days, I would have been still good for two sets of tennis doubles.
The way it is now there is no more nimbleness, no more agility. My carefree, impulsive, come-what- may attitude has taken its toll and took away even the “brakes” in my legs.
The problem with old age is that where you want the part of your body to soften up, it hardens, and where you want it hardened it softens up.
Mejor ya namas Gie que aun mis rodillas estan mal, me corazon y los otros mas importantes organos del cuerpo siguen bien, gracias a Dios. Estos son los que valen mas.
What I told Angie, Ay, is that am still thankful to God that even if my knees are in bad shape, my heart and other important organs of my body are functioning well and these are what matter most.
We are all looking forward to Iñaki and family’s arrival early this evening.
We are just as excited as they are even if their stay will only be up to Sunday. They are coming early since they could not spend Christmas with us.
If there is one person that is heels over head about this trip to Cebu it is little Maive.
She has been telling all and sundry, and to those who cares to listen, that she was coming to Cebu.
This planned trip may have aroused and energized her that she talks about it even in her sleep. This is not to mention the badgering she has been doing to her parents about when Friday is going to be.
But I think what is firing her more is the anxiousness to meet and have fun with Henry and Chickaminute.
Henry and Chickaminute actually are a pair of kabir chickens that are pretty well tamed now. Am sure Maive will enjoy feeding and holding them.
Otherwise, they will go wild every time they see Maive.
We are expecting Angie and the kids today. We are excited to have them as they missed being with us on Christmas day. The same goes with Iñaki and family.
This is the first time we did not have Iñaki and Angie around the table to celebrate “noche buena.” Fortunately we had Chavi who was able to make it, with Maisy and Maitina.
Funny, this is the first time we didn’t put up a Christmas tree, knowing perhaps that there won’t be kids to enjoy it. Obviously, there were no gifts under the tree, but, they were all in our room.
This is the first time, too, that no pictures were taken for somebody unwrapping his or her gifts. It was practically a subdued Christmas, but, nevertheless, we were thankful for the variety of food we had on the table which all went well with the accompanying red wine.
But, you know what, something else was also missing when we were all seated around the table. I couldn’t believe we did not have what to me is a Christmas food symbol – the fruit cake! This has always been a mainstay on the table on the eve of Christmas, and for the first time, too, it wasn’t there. We went looking for it earlier, but, the stores didn’t have it anymore.
We are all excited having all of them to meet the new year 2011. Iñaki and family will be arriving towards the end of December.
With all of them here, am sure everything is going to be “normal” again.
There will be more noise, the house will be in an utter state of disorder and confusion, there will be cameras flashing, there will be belated unwrapping of gifts, especially by the kids, there will be more food and for sure we shall be having fruit cake again.
We have been blessed and for this we have to thank the Almighty.
Hope more dreams will be fulfilled in 2011 and we all shall continue living in good health with secured tomorrow, and have the chance to be able to help, in anyway we can, those in dire need of assistance.
Except for losing mother in August, 2010 was practically a good year.
We had two additions in the family – Maitina and Mayumi – born four months apart, one in January and the other in May.
Klaus continues his reign as the lone prince with brainy Amaya and the soooo feminine Maive completing the captivating and enjoyable five.
Everybody is back in their own respective “coops” now.
Iñaki, Ay, and kids left Jan. 2 for Manila, thus, making the house less rowdy, but, losing part of the gaiety that we had been used to since they arrived for the holidays.
Angie and the kids left early this morning for Manila also and this totally made the house so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Not until Chavi and family come to visit that we will hear the sound of a child’s presence again.
With Paz at work, I entertain myself with feeding and talking and sometimes cursing Henry and Chicka minute, the two kabir fowls in the yard, for their indiscriminate droppings.
If being delightfully surprised and happy will set the tone for how it shall be for all of us in 2011, then I wouldn’t ask for anything more, except perhaps for continued blessing of good health. Am sure everyone in the family feels the same way.
I hope the effects of what happened to Mommy Pie on her birthday last Jan. 5 will rub on us all!
She was not only happy and bubbly about the surprised party commemorating her 65th birthday, but, she was equally delighted and on cloud nine seeing her close friends and former office mates wishing her well and reminiscing the past with them.
With the good food that Café Laguna served, it really made her day.
We were all happy to see her enjoy the day starting with a breakfast at Jollibee, where Amaya wanted to go, and lunch of Japanese food at SM, not to mentioned being an owner of a brand new sandals.
Would like to thank Iñaki, Angie and Chavi for thinking and working all these out confidentially and successfully. I just happened to be a willing accomplice. Special thanks to Angie for emceeing that night. T’was a good job.
Before January ends, Chavi and Maisy’s first born, Maitina, will be celebrating a milestone. How time flies. Maitina will be one year old!
She is starting to say a few words now and has come to learn that her two legs are meant for walking.
But, I don’t know what is between us. She comes more often than the rest, but, until now she just stares at me and feel more comfortable if she doesn’t see me.
I don’t know if it is the growing lines on my face, my big nose, the white bristles on my face or the salt and pepper hair I carry on my head, but the thing is that I only find success in having high fives and low fives and aligning fingers with her.
Oh, how I wish I could carry her and talk to her!
Will see how 2011 will be.
Advance Happy Birthday, Maitina! Long way to go girl!
Can’t hardly believe that Eduardo a.k.a. Gong has been gone for six years now.
Visited his grave today. He would have been 64 years old.
Pains me remembering how he died. It was just as well that God finally took him sooner.
His suffering was getting worst. It was bad enough seeing him suffer, but even more devastating holding him curled up in his bed, talking and wondering when the end would come.
I admire him for his fearlessness before an impending end to his life after a long, hard, painful struggle with kidney problem.
He saw it coming. It was not a battle lost. It was rather an acceptance of fate.
He wanted comfort, he was given peace.
Through death, God, in His goodness, granted him mercy and rest that he so much deserved.
It is consoling that Gong left behind a closely knitted family that are all doing so well.
Angie is back in Hong Kong attending the sequel of that play therapy seminar she attended the first time in September 2010.
This means to say that mommy Pie is also back in Manila, as before, momentarily assuming guardianship of grandchildren Amaya and Mayumi while Angie is away.
What this means also is that am back being alone again living an ‘abnormal’ life without a wife.
I have eaten three meals already, all chicken. Paz prepared some food before she left and they are all frozen, Just have to heat it up. But……
No, am not complaining. In fact am happy the way things are going. Angie is moving on, equipping herself with the tools she will need for her career,
Paz is having a break from my ‘quirks’ and can spend time with Iñaki and family, as she is with Angie’s little girls.
Good that Chavi is still in Cebu. Had lunch with him and family today, Sunday. It was the third chicken meal I had.
It will be like this until Angie returns sometime next week. By then Chavi, Maisy, Maitina and I shall have joined Paz, Iñaki, Ay, Klaus, and Maive and be on our way to Baguio, if plans materializes. Rodin, Angie, Amaya and Mayumi will follow.
My only consolation right now is that I can still laugh despite the inconveniences because the bathroom is packed with joke books that gives me the pleasure of cracking up when I do my morning ritual and any other time when I feel like going.
Back to reality again after four days of exciting and enjoyable stay in Manila with my wife, children and grandchildren.
Back to reality again, when you are all alone at home, sans the ruckus in the house that either results into fight, crying or laughter among the little ones.
Back to reality again when you don’t fear of tripping over and doing a split because of toys scattered all over the place.
Back to reality again, when you don’t hear sound of animated shows coming out from the TV set.
Back to reality again when, at your heart’s content, you have the luxury of surfing TV channels that catches your fancy without anybody telling you that your time is up!
Most of all it is back to reality when in the midst of the peace and quiet you start thinking of the little ‘devils’ and miss them despite the ruckus they create, the danger of the scattered toys for your wobbly knees, the funny (noisy?) sounds of the cartoon shows and the nudging you get from them because it’s their time to watch TV.
For two weeks we were hosts to the gnomes of Project 6, Manila.
We will just hide them using the names Klaus and Maive!
They flew over to Cebu accompanied by their nanny only. Talking about gnome chutzpah!
Had to call all the saints in heaven, including their late Lola Vicing, for the little ones to have a safe and pleasant flight.
Gnome’s father Iñaki made an earlier flight to Cebu for the Petron dealer’s convention. Perhaps Iñaki booked his ticket a while back and bringing over the gnomes was not in the plan.
We went back to the airport a few hours later to meet the kids and they all came out of the terminal happy, excited and as if it was the most natural thing any 5 and 3-year old kid should be doing.
The next two weeks became once more a cornucopia of shouts, cries, laughter, baby TV channel sounds and internet games in the house.
Old toys kept inside a box were all out again on the floor and elsewhere. They don’t seem to outgrow the toys. Poor Elmo’s attire is now incomplete and whatever is added to his feature, the miserable looking toy shouts, “what now?”
Once more my regular TV news routine has been eschewed.
Was even surprised one early morning when we were having breakfast and listening to Bobby Nalzaro’s commentaries, when Maive exasperatedly approached the radio and tried turning it off. I asked, “what you doing?” and answered back, “maingay kasi.” She was right. How could we be listening when we were busy talking!
Apparently my radio was interfering to her listening pleasure while watching her morning baby channel shows. I was stunned, but, what really made me laugh was when she watched me suspiciously whether or not I was going to turn up the volume again!
Maive is something else! “Ay Dios ko,” she often says!
How time moves. Now they are back in Manila and we miss their company again.
Once more the house has fallen silent.
I find amusement in seeing Henry not leaving Chikaminute in peace. All he knows is mount the poor hen.
To date, the battered fowl has given me its 35th egg and counting!
Every time I see an additional wrinkle on my face, despite the funny faces I make on myself to stretch the skin, feel an aching bone here and there, having a hard time getting up from bed in the morning, after sleeping fewer hours that comes too often now, I know am in the month of June again.
Well, very understandable. I always feel like am getting a year older every June. I can tell it looking at my whitish hair on my head and on my face. Thanks goodness I still can count what I have growing on my eyebrows.
How time flies! Once you were always the youngest. Now you seem to be always the oldest around.
You see yourself shrinking while you see in your children what you were then. Others ahead of you have already gone to the great beyond, even those that are sometimes younger, by the decree of God.
It is simply what we call aging and that defines what the cycle of life is all about.
Now you are there, soon you are gone. But, while am here and what remains of the cycle, I will make the most of it.
I am just very thankful of my family. I may not have all the money I want to have, but I have them and have made me realize long before that material things are not all there is to life.
The cycle is always sweeter completed knowing that love and mutual respect abounds.
I would like to thank God for His kindness, for bringing me this far in life.
Hope the journey continues longer.
Let the wrinkles find more places. Let the aching bones continue. Let the white hair replace the black.
Pop happy birthday although what i’m going to share is more of a father’s day article. It talks of fathers that have gone ahead, the living ones and the relationship with their sons. Happy father’s day too!!!
To all the fathers out there, including those ordained by the Church that sired children and there are plenty of them, Happy Father’s Day!
There wasn’t really much hype about this event when I was growing up. But, I love my father so much, despite the welts from his Hickok belt on my buttocks and the right straight I got from him one time for my mischief in high school, that when I came to Cebu for my college study and had little extra pocket money I bought him the ancient 45-record of “Oh my papa.”
Unlike today, there is an extensive publicity about Father’s Day. You hear it being announced in the air waves, see it on TV and read it on print medium.
Makes you wonder if you have been doing right in your performance as a father, as oppose to the performance of the more sought after and more popular counterpart – the mother!
Makes you wonder if the way you raised a child deserves some accolade in return.
The truth is that when fathering, you don’t really think about being rewarded for it.
You do it as an obligation making sure that they grow up the way you want them to be, with the ability, capability, capacity and knowledge you have in rearing a child, but not necessarily the way you were brought up.
Each one has his own unique way of bringing a child up.
I can see it in my children’s, who are themselves parents now in their own right.
I did it my way (forgive the pun which have killed many singing in the karaoke sing-along) and each of them has their own distinct, efficacious way.
But, it is not all flesh and blood.
Like in cooking, to produce good, palatable food, you have to mix in the necessary, right ingredients.
The children’s growth must also be seasoned with love, understanding, patience, care, discipline, independence, awareness, ambition, that will give them self-worth and confidence. For a good measure, you can throw in the Boys Scout oath.
Fatherhood only becomes fulfilling and deserving when you see your kids attain goals and achieve that which you haven’t through their own sweat and tears and their burning desire to become what they want to be in life.
A long way yet to go? Not really. Life is so short.
Except for Kate who was stealthily snatched by a stalking cat at the back yard, everything else humanly possible, both desired and willed, are getting realized.
On our part, we are, thankfully, aging well, accepting it as the way to go without much worrying at the funny face one has now even without trying to be funny.
We are happy and contented with how things are evolving with the working careers of Iñaki, Angie and Chavi and their respective spouses.
Iñaki has informed us about a possible shake-up and movement in San Miguel’s Petron which could see him being pulled out as Training Director and brought back to Sales with a managerial position. We are crossing our fingers and hopefully may materialize before the year ends. Petron’s acquisition by San Miguel is the best thing that has ever happened to Iñaki’s lifework.
After months of agonizing preparation and juggling of work and household chore schedules, Angie has finally completed formalizing the write-up and binding of the nearly 400 pages of her dissertation papers for her PhD in Psychology. Being apprised all the time of what she is doing (in answer to my usual text question: what you doing?), the news that all is done has not only been much welcomed, but it brought us also a satisfying amount of sigh and relief.
Like his older siblings, Chavi is also happy in what he does, having found his niche in the hotel business. Chavi’s demeanor is well suited where he is and I am sure Shangri-la will see his potential one day and will give him a break. I just sometimes wonder how Chavi does it. If I was in his place I would have not lasted even for a week.
I would like to take this opportunity in congratulating grandson Klaus for being a gold medalist in his Grade 1 class. It’s a must now adays for kids to know what competition is, how to be competitive and what excelling means without pushing them too hard.
In our days to be competitive was to be physical. If we get to be included in the honor list, it was a major bonus.
Can’t wait to see how granddaughters, Maive, Amaya, Mayumi and Maitina will perform. Having Ay, Rodin and Maisy as achievers , I have high hopes they will fare well too.
Anything you have had for over 15 years is not easy to part with, especially if it is something that has helped you and hasn’t given you at all much of a headache.
Comes a time, however, when reality far outweighs nostalgia and a decision has to be made no matter how much longer you want to have it in you possession.
This is what happened to my blue Mazda pick-up which I decided to sell. Age has caught up with the car and while it has served me well (and Chavi, too, for a while), its “sight and sounds” when running were tell tales signs that it has known far better days before and was no longer that “strong, durable and reliable.” Its frequent visit to the shop only worried me more. Maintenance was getting expensive and funds, wanting. It needed someone else to sustain it in good running condition rather than fall into the nostalgic folly of seeing it, at the end, crippled in front of your house. Thus, while there were still takers and some amount could still be salvaged out of it, it was sold.
This is the second car I sold that made me emotionally tearful.
The first one was the first car we had, a Renault 10, which suffered as much as I did, when I was working with SMC in the 70s, courtesy of the union people. This car followed me and family to Manila when I worked with Purefoods in Marikina. It has reached as far as the famous beach of the notorious Lino Bocalan in Cavite, where blue seal cigarettes were beached and smuggled in. It came back to Cebu with us when I asked for a transfer and got granted. It wasn’t running much when I found myself jobless for almost a year in the mid-80s. What made work harder to find was the aftermath of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. Before a year ended, however, and out of the blue, I received a call from an old acquaintance – a foreigner, whom I met when he visited Purefoods Cebu onetime, inviting me to his plant in Zamboanga, a tuna loining and canning factory, to see if I would love to worked there. Who wouldn’t, when I needed the job badly. Even if they were canning cockroaches I would have still joined them! The rest is history and so has been with my Renault, which I sold for a song to my mechanic, whose forte was repairing Renaults. I shed some tears after not seeing it anymore in the garage.
Two more cars were sold before the Mazda – a Volkswagen and a Nissan Sentra. I wasn’t so emotionally affected selling them. I knew Iñaki and Chavi loved the Volks so much, but I seldom drove it. Not because I had my Mazda then, but for one reason I always felt like I get sucked in under the big trucks when I drove it. Also, I felt like the roof is being spit-on by people from bigger vehicles when you are running beside them.
The Sentra was something else. As always I thank Iñaki for it, but at the end I didn’t want to be reminded of bad memories. Besides, Honda was coming. Thanks again King.
July 27, 2011 will be D-Day for Angie. It will be the culmination of her long, long years of study and the crowning glory of her much cherished dream as she defends her dissertation for a doctoral degree in psychology.
While her contemporaries have long left the portals of the school practicing their profession and reaping fully the fruits of their labor, Angie continued pursuing her dream, teaching pre-school and tutoring to earn money while balancing her time as a wife and a mother to two active girls.
Looking back now, it seems like it was only a few years ago that I accompanied Angie to Manila on board a Sulficio vessel, to start this new chapter of her life.
Amid the uncertainties, what prevailed was the courage and determination to make something of herself.
In between were joys and tears, ups and downs, peaks and valleys – some sorrows of unimaginable proportions.
We acknowledge Angie’s achievement brought about by her own effort, resolve and sacrifice. Ours was purely moral support and unceasing prayers for her success.
Like Iñaki and Chavi, we also stand proud for Angie, all for having gone through hard times and being able to sacrifice who they were for what they could become and be blessed with joy, pride and peace of mind.
Congratulations Doc!
P.S. On a different note, I would just like to announce that a new member has been accepted to the family circle. He is a four-legged canine called Wally. The vet described him as mini-pinscher mongrel. In effect he is a toy dog and he is only 2 months old. He has been receiving a lot of attention/affection as he is a lovable dog. But I don’t know how long this honeymoon will last with all the peeing and the pooping he does inside the house. Can’t seem to learn new tricks yet. Or maybe we just lack the fundamentals of training him toilet manners.
What is normal today and the days past may no longer be tomorrow as Iñaki and family arrives in the morning from Manila.
Peace will be broken and chaos will prevail. We welcome it all and the two, not little ones anymore, who will be creating it – Klaus and Maive.
I could just imagine Wally getting crazy in the company of his new acquaintances. Hope their visit would be in time for Wally’s next appointment with the vet. Would be a good experience for them to see that baby dogs get immunized too.
Am sure I will be writing less, but what the heck, I don’t see them very often and they can have the computer.
August is a mixture of happy and sad events.
Hope Chavi don’t get to read this or else Iñaki and Ay’s visit, together with their kids, may no longer be a surprise for him as he celebrates his 32nd birthday. How time flies! Vivid memory I have of Chavi is when he goes to the neighbors house every morning, sits and waits for the late Remy to hand him a table banana. How he loves to eat bananas until now! Now he has a wife, Maisy, and a baby girl, Maitina, who has started walking, but hasn’t learned to come near me yet.
Come August 25 will be Doc Angie’s birthday too. She will be here with Amaya and Mayume a day after. Never mind her age. What is important is that she is finally done studying.
On the same day that Angie will be celebrating her birthday, we will also commemorate papa’s death anniversary. It is less hurting now with the passage of time, but missing him deeply, nonetheless.
What is still hurting and missed terribly is mama’s death, which we will be remembering on August 31st. It will be ma’s 1st death anniversary.
We are back to what we have been used to – silence in the house.
Just like when Klaus and Maive left after spending some time with us in August, there was also emptiness that I felt when Amaya and Mayumi left yesterday.for Manila.
I think it is going to get harder and harder to see the little ones go especially when every time they come they grow bigger and smarter and can carry on very well a conversation. The joy of having them here, seeing and listening to their antics, is simply immeasurable.
I also think that I find it a little harder now, at my age, to adjust to being alone again once they suddenly depart and I can’t hear any kid’s voices anymore. I can’t even seem to look at the scattered toys left behind all over the place, much less gather them up for safekeeping until they come back again. Can’t help my eyes swelling with tears.
I can only wish all the grandchildren well and pray they be in God’s caring hands all the time.
On a different note, last September 11 marked my brother Angel’s 46th death anniversary. I continuously miss him. He was different from the rest. He has been with me in my thoughts and in my prayers, so much so that on the eve of his death anniversary I dreamed about him. He was the way I saw him last. He wanted to teach me something and I woke up.
It has been 46 years since I last saw him. Am sure it won’t take this long before I see him again — if ever. May he continue resting in peace.
You will notice probably that I have not been updating lately this page. It is just that there are so many things happening in the family that I can’t just seem to cope up with the individual detail of what is going on.
Suffice to say that Iñaki, Angie and Chavi are all busy with their jobs and looking after their children.
Life is not always bed of roses, as the cliché says. Up to a certain point, yes, and then it gets to be a bed of sand, of pebbles, and of rocks.
Life is what you make it.
For being one, it is much easier and no one to share the blame or point the finger at.
For being a couple, it gets difficult and there just should be no room for inflated ego.
But for being a couple with children, life can be a little complicated, depending on how much effort you are contributing to matters in the family and how extent the threshold of emotional pain and patience you have for one another.
An unknown author has written about life that I would like to share with my children and their spouses and those who come across this page. It is very instructional, to say the least, and very helpful, as we continue our journey in life.
Life is too short. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.
Laugh when you can, apologize when you should and let go of
what you can’t change. Love deeply and forgive quickly. Take
chances. Give everything and have no regrets. Life is too
short to be unhappy. You have to take the good with the bad.
Smile when you’re sad, love what you got, and always remember
what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. Learn from
your mistakes but never regret. People change, and things go
wrong but always remember – life goes on!
“Today is the Day..Don’t Wait for Tomorrow ” is the subject of SunnySmile4U’s blog. I woul like to share with you an excerpt from her article ….
“Regrets from our actions today, will not help when the opportunity is here now and we choose ignore it…to leave it for another day. It will be of no comfort to the ones we love when they are gone, and for you… you will be left with regrets; you will be left with the “ I SHOULD HAVES”:
… I should have done this with them; I should have told them how much I love them; I should have been there for them; I should have shown more affection and love towards them; I should have been more attentive, I should have been more affectionate, I should have been more forgiving etc. Do what your heart tells you to do. Do not expect anything back in return for you will have already gotten it back tenfold. You will have the comfort of knowing that, if one day… you are faced to live without them…. You will know that they left knowing they were loved… and you will have the peace of mind knowing they did. You will not have to live with regrets.
Remember “TODAY IS THE DAY”… not “ TOMORROW” as sometimes, tomorrow never comes!
In short this is just like saying that “It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.”
“papooch, we will go to cebu in christmas eve. papooch take a good time with wally. mommypie and papooch see you soon. i love you. take care.”
from amaya and mayumi
Rodin and Klaus will be celebrating their birthdays tomorrow. I don’t exactly know how old Rodin will be but judging from the number of hair on his head turning white, he is that old already. Don’t know if its the job, wife Angie or daughters Amaya and Mayumi making the color change fast but I’d rather mind my own business.
On the other hand, Klaus will be seven years old! WOW!, really getting to be a big boy now. Sent some things which we hope he will enjoy having.
Too bad we cannot be with any of them as each celebrate their natal day but having families of their own now am sure that they will make everything possible that the celebrant will feel honored and happy, befitting another milestone.
Happy Birthday Rodin and Klaus!! You will be in our thoughts and prayers and hope that you both will have a great day and be blessed with many, many more birthdays to come.
Last week was a trying, anxious one for the family. We were at needle’s end, especially for Paz and I. It was not so much that Paz was to be admitted to the hospital for a medical procedure, as it was knowing if what she went into will later tell us a bad news. This is what was eating us up.
Though the biopsy turned out to be favorable and relieving, just the same the medical procedure was upgraded to what is described as hysterectomy. It was just as well that this procedure was done as the insides didn’t look good and Paz was simply nourishing some growths that ought not to be there and could just be the source of more health problems in the future if the whole uterus is not removed.
Very thankful to Angie who came over to assist her mother while recuperating at the hospital and even when Paz got discharged already. Had I been left alone to tend to the patient, I would just have been scratching that which need not be scratched and accomplished nothing.
The day Paz was operated on was the feast of the Immaculate Concepcion. We took it as a good omen and we could never be more thankful for her intercession. We thank Rodin for his patience when left to care for Amaya and Mayumi. Amaya who is so mature for her age wouldn’t stop calling and telling her ma that they also needed a mother to care for them and not just be relegated to the “yayas.”. Made us so guilty, no end. Thank goodness Mayumi couldn’t care less yet. Anyway, the two girls have their ma back now.
Highlight of Paz’s hospitalization is that she was granted an early discharged just so she could attend her company’s Christmas party cum “despidida” tribute for her. She has finally opted to retire. It was a moving tribute and she deserved it.
I just experienced something weird, out of the normal, this morning when I accompanied Paz to the doctor. It was her schedule to see the doctor, a week after undergoing hysterectomy.
After the appointment we went to the elevator area and waited for the car to take us down. While waiting, however, there was this man, older than me, who was approaching in our direction from the right side. I turned my head as he was nearing and for a split second our eyes locked before I resumed my conversation with Paz again and he passed us by the back. The man’s face kept coming back in my mind and was trying to remember if, indeed, I knew him. I couldn’t place him.
A minute or two after, I felt a tapping on my back and when I turned around there was this man, who was asking me if I was a Sievert. I said yes, and he told me immediately that he was the one who took care of the burial ceremony of my brother, Angel, a pilot, who died in a plane crash at the very young age of 28.
I tried striking a conversation with him, but he seemed in a hurry. I was just able to get his name which he gave as Roldan Gonzalez (the last name I am sure, though the first name is the best of my recollection). Still the name didn’t ring a bell.
What makes the whole thing weird to me is that, why did he come back to ask me if I was a Sievert? I don’t remember knowing him, much less seeing him.
I am 67 now, with salt and pepper hair and moustache, and practically white, trimmed beard. How could he have related me to Angel, 46 years after the fact? He even had a hard time remembering the name of the airline Angel worked for, which used to be Fairways and later changed to Filipinas in 1965. I was 21 that year.
Why was he remembering of Angel when he saw me? Angel had a distinct look all his own, so how could I ever be similar or alike him, in looks, at 67? I didn’t even know I would look like this in my old age, how much more for someone who has not known me at all, like Gonzalez. Would he have thought that Angel would look like me in his old age?
I can’t seem to blog about anything yet and for as long as the holidays are here.
Family affair takes precedence over what’s happening here and abroad. It’s not always that I have them. Besides, these are the kind of holidays – Christmas season and the advent of New Year – that calls for attention towards members of the family who spends money for the trip and goes through all the hustle to spend time with you. It would simply be unpardonable not to mind or neglect their presence for something that you can do with out – it being a hobby and not a career.
I do not know, but for one reason or another, your mind also goes blank as to what to write about. Perhaps mine got worse and got so darn numb reading, seeing and listening to the poor victims of typhoon killer and holiday spoiler Sendong. Most of all, I am just so pissed at the way politics is wrecking havoc upon the populace. Like I said, don’t blame nature. Blame those in congress, in provincial capitols, in cities and municipal halls.
Anyway, I hope 2012 brings some changes to the ways of people – for the better. And there will be more interesting things to write about.
For now, allow me to enjoy my family. I miss those who can’t make it for now, but looking forward when they can. I understand. You may be the captain of your soul, but, definitely, you are not the master of your own work schedule, unless you run your own business.
Meanwhile, Happy Holidays and wish you all meaningful time with your families.
Year 2012 started auspiciously for our family and we owe it to nothing but hard work, determination, family support and supplications from the Almighty.
It’s appearing to be a year of settling for good, of finally finishing school and graduating after what it seemed to be a life-time of studies, of transferring assignment and work places, and last but not least, of promotions and stable jobs.
Time has finally come when Paz won’t be reporting for work anymore. I will no longer be alone by myself eating lunch. I will not be living anymore in solitude during day time, as if you are being quarantined. I have been “homebound” since I felt burnt out and quit working, while Paz continued being employed. Now I have a companion that I can laugh with experiencing each other’s senior moments.
This year will see Iñaki transferred to sales, after being Petron Corporation’s training director. We are awaiting confirmation from him re this movement, where he will be handling an area in Luzon in managerial capacity. Petron is now owned by San Miguel Corporation and he was one of those who survived the ‘cleansing’ before being absorbed by SMC. After 15 years with Petron, hard work is starting to pay-off by being among those setting policies and direction of the company. No stopping Iñaki’s rise. Way to go King!
If there has ever been a sigh of big relief, like, when one exhales audibly in a long, deep breath as in, ‘WHEW!’, I have never heard one as loud as Angie’s! And for a reason! You see, Angie, after almost 20 years of studies, and in between giving birth to two outspoken, ‘mind-of-her-own’ girls and running the household, eventually earned her PhD in Psychology Major in Clinical Counseling from De La Salle University. While most of her college classmates have been enjoying life, one way or the other, Angie has been practically struggling to make her dream come true. She must have done exceptionally well for she is not only receiving her doctorate degree, but she was chosen to give the valedictory address during the college recognition day on February 1, 2012. You make us all proud, Angie! Thanks.
Not to be outdone, Chavi also has made a bold step in transferring from Shangrila’s Mactan Resort and Spa Hotel to Mactan’s Crimson Hotel Resort and Spa, effective January 24, 2012. From being a Group’s Coordinator in Shang, Chavi has accepted a higher position and a corresponding bigger responsibility by becoming Crimson’s Duty Manager. It’s about time and Chavi deserves it! The challenge now is to make a difference. Go for it, son!
Me, no stopping the hair growing gray and body pains increasing. But I am not complaining.
Overall, life has been good and I could not ask for more. I am blessed. I am happy.
I am so grateful to have you all.
May good health sustains us all this year and for many, many more years.
gracias pap… once i told myself that in this regard, i will save the best for last… and it has happened 🙂 ive always been first honorable mention hehehe now, at 36yo, i get to be valedictorian… not an easy feat considering that things most joyous and significant, things most painful, the most challenging tasks physically, emotionally and cognitively happened within the six years i started and ended my phd.. ive never thought myself highly intelligent, that was always Inaki 🙂 and there were always people better than me.. what saw me through were hard work and determination: when there was still something to give, then there was no giving up; family’s love, support, belief and understanding: how would i have done all these without all that from the people who matter most; gratitude and giving back: life is not about me, that ive always known. ive always thought that the reason i am here is im meant to do something, life is about me for others and that propels me on.. i hope one day amaya and mayumi will see the value of what i did and what i went through.. that they see there is so much good and right in this world and that we can be that which is good and right. thank you for everything. quiero mucho
Let me just take this opportunity to greet Iñaki, Angie and Chavi and their respective family a Happy Valentines Day!
Work and family have taken you away from us, but recognizing this day as one of sharing your love for one another, it has become a tradition that we, as parents, have always explicitly expressed the same coming deeply from our hearts.
Expressions of love, more than anything, have build up our relations and made as stronger, determined, understanding and supportive of one another. It is what has carried us over all these years, through good times and bad.
Wherever you guys are now and whatever you have attained in life, thus far, is a testament to this endearing, yet mighty word of affection – love.
We could never be more thankful and proud of your individual response that carries with it a sense of passion that makes a whole lot of difference.
Somebody once said that ‘the love of family is life’s greatest blessing.”
As we have done, we urge you all to understand and embrace it, for as Desmond Tutu also said, “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”
On this occasion, let me re-print and share with you this prayer that, God knows, have nothing but our sincere intentions for you:
Dear Lord,
On Valentine’s Day
I pray that You will
cover my family
with Your grace and protection.
I pray that You will
draw each one of them
ever closer to You,
supporting them,
encouraging them,
being always with them
as they go through
life’s ups and downs.
I pray that You will
help them, love them,
make them Yours.
In Jesus’ name I pray; amen
My brother Oger, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, is now in Cebu for a visit. This is his first visit since ma died in 2010, which some of us siblings, including Oger, witnessed her passing.
With ma no longer here and the house sold since then, Oger, as well as the other siblings living abroad who comes for a visit have made it point to stay with Eton, the oldest of the brothers. Gang, our younger sister and a special person who has been ma’s constant companion for over 50 years has also been given accommodation in Eton’s house.
I always look forward to Oger’s visit and I relish every moment we are together. I know the feeling is mutual. We have always been close growing up and I was devastated when he left for the U.S. to enhance his medical profession and practiced it there. He is four years older than I am.
Struggling to succeed in his profession, which he did, and gotten married, he did not really have the luxury of money and time, then, to be coming home.
Our paths crossed so many years after when I joined the U.S. navy and got sent for training in San Diego. Upon graduation, the first thing I did was book a flight to Michigan where I became a godfather to his first born, Mike.
Despite his strenuous schedule of work and study we still were able to spend good time recollecting the past and going places with his wife Chris.
While I was in the service doing a stint in Vietnam, I always made it a point that after we return to the mainland from finishing a tour of duty, I pay Oger a visit. That ended when I decided to return to the Philippines for good.
When Oger had already a flourishing practice and even in his retirement, he has always been coming home, like a good son that he was, to visit pa and ma. He continued his yearly visit even when pa died already many years earlier.
Things have changed now since ma died, not only to Oger, but for those who have taken residences abroad. Ma has always been the common denominator for them all. Not only is that ma no longer exists, but age is getting the better of us all. Except for our two younger sisters, we are all way past our 60s and 70s and heading towards our sunsets.
Oger and I visited the graves of the family’s departed ones and we agreed to the reality that life is getting short with the living, for our love ones, and sooner than much later we will be in the company of the dead.
How time has flown. How precious life has become and how thankful we all can be for having gone this far.
Es interesante que hay un escritor espanol en este pais que escribe en espanol y ingles.
Interesante. Muy interesante. Que escriba cada dia para anotar los detalles de tu vida y dejar mensajes del corazon a tus queridos. Me parece que no te queda mucho tiempo.
Muchas gracias por su comentario.Usted tiene razón, no hay tantos filipinos que hablan español ahora. Gracias a mis padres, que nos obligó a hablar español en casa, puedo hablar y escribir el idioma). Mi abuelo (junto con sus dos hermanos) vinieron a Filipinas de Cádiz, España.
Nothing much happening on this page, the reason for updates being far-in-between. Looks like everyone is in their rightful places, working their butts off, earning, enjoying, and busy raising their respective family. Iñaki is finally Davao-based now handling and responsible for Petron’s sales for southern Mindanao in a managerial position. I have confidence in Iñaki’s competence, the reason for his having gone this far at a very young age. Prayers and humility are keys. My only advise is to put the welfare of kids over and above whatever corporate ambitions he has.
Great things are happening with Angie’s job, too. More people, especially in the medical profession are getting to know her and her humanitarian work with Kythe Foundation, especially in its Child Life Program, is opening doors for her own professional enhancement that will translate later to better child care. Kythe caters to the psycho-social needs of pediatric patients (especially those with chronic illness, such as cancer) in government hospitals around the country. I understand it is almost always a distressing, heart-wrenching job to be around cancer stricken children, but to be able to help is enough consolation. I hope the more fortunate ones could share their blessings in helping fund the medical and other supplementary needs of these children, especially those confined in government hospitals with inadequate facilities.
On his part, the best thing that has happened to Chavi is taking the decision/gamble to transfer from Shangri-la resort hotel to Crimson resort hotel. The risk was worth it as he finds himself applying his managerial skills to the hilt. Not until you are given the responsibility and authority to handle people, solve problems and decide for management during your work hours will you start appreciating the trust given you and the respect shown you by the company. With diligence, commitment and foresight, I have high hopes for Chavi to do well in his niche.
Allow me to share with you not only a good news, but a fulfilling one at that, coming from Angie.
She says, “i guess hard work, perseverance and tremendous amount of patience and sacrifice
does pay off.. no where to go but up hopefully 🙂 finally… a certified specialist in counseling psychology recognized by the psychological assoc of the phil 🙂
Psychological Association of the Philippines
Room 210, 2/F, PSSCenter Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Tel/Fax No.: 453-8257; E-mail Address: pap_1962_08@yahoo.com
PAP Website: pap.org.ph
June 1, 2012
Angelita Rosario Sievert-Fernandez, PhD
Dear Dr. Fernandez,
Congratulations! The PAP Evaluation Committee for the Certification of Counseling Psychologists has approved your application. You are now part of the third batch of PAP’s Certified Specialists in Counseling Psychology.
Your certification is valid from June 1, 2012 until May 31, 2015, and from now until then you can display your credential as PAP Certified Specialist in Counseling Psychology. The PAP will provide you with a certificate and an identification card indicating this credential.
Similarly, the PAP will also publish a Registry of Certified Specialists in Counseling Psychology. However, in order to ensure that your entry in the registry is accurate, we would like to request you to email the PAP Secretariat the complete professional name you wish to be written in the registry. In addition, please include your contact number/s and email address only if you wish this information to be included in the registry. We would like to ask you to email all these information within three days of your receipt of this letter.
I would like to remind you that PAP Certification comes with responsibilities. First, it is expected that you would be guided by the PAP’s Code of Ethics for Philippine Psychologist. Second, it is expected that you would continue to upgrade your professional knowledge by participating in various types of continuing professional activities. The renewal of your certification will be dependent on your compliance with these two expectations.
We also would like to request that you pick up the documents you submitted in support of your application not later than July 31, 2012. The PAP Secretariat will properly dispose all documents that are not retrieved by the latter date.
Very truly yours,
Ma. Caridad H. Tarroja, PhD
President
Anybody wanting to avail of her services especially those relating to psycho-social needs of pediatric patients (especially those with chronic illness, such as cancer), she can be contacted at this address:
ANGIE SIEVERT-FERNANDEZ, Ph.D.
Counseling Psychologist
Child Life Program Manager
Kythe, Inc.
Tel. 02-3763454 http://www.kythe.org
This is just about more on what Angie is up to these days.
What is reprinted here comes from Balita, a publication of the Philippine News Agency, which tries to raise awareness of the existence of Kythe and the assistance/needs it requires in terms of compassionate volunteers and gracious donors for children afflicted with cancer and other chronic illnesses.
Kythe calls for more psycho-social care volunteers for children with cancer, other chronic illnesses
June 27, 2012 9:46 pm
By Sweetie de la Torre
MANILA, June 27 –Local stars, such as Jericho Rosales, John Llyod Cruz, Sharon Cuneta, Robin Padilla to name a few, and other people from all walks of life have taken time to visit cancer-afflicted children at their hospital beds to ease the patients’ pain, anxiety, fear and stress.
Now it’s your turn and mark your calendars and be the next groups of volunteers who would provide psycho-social care to children with cancer and other chronic illnesses, through Kythe, a non-profit organization.
Kythe has provided psycho-social care to more than 8,000 children with cancer and other chronic illnesses. It has scheduled its next orientation for volunteers on July 14.
“It is fortunate to have volunteers and partners who regarded the Kythe experience as their mantra in paying it forward. It dawned on them that helping children with chronic illnesses is a cause truly deserving of their energies and resources,” according to Maria Fatima “Girlie” Garcia-Lorenzo, co-founder of Kythe, the first certified child life specialist in the Philippines during a media forum held at the BayLeaf Hotel in Intramuros Manila Wednesday.
Accordingly, Kythe Child Life Specialists have continuously sought to learn about what the child-patient thinks and feels while confined in the hospital through the organization’s Child Life Program.
Kythe pursues its Child Life Program in partnership with 11 public and private hospitals nationwide, which include Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, Batangas Regional Hospital, Bicol Medical Center, Dr. Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Hospital, National Children’s Hospital, Perpetual Succour Hospital Cebu, Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Tarlac Provincial Hospital, University of Sto. Tomas Hospital and Southern Philippines Medical Center.
“We enter the child’s world through play. “We use play because it is the child’s way to communicate happiness, hurts and fears. And once we have a grasp of what the child-patient needs, we provide the necessary interventions like preparation and education about the illness, coping techniques during medical procedures and emotional support during times of grief,” said Dr. Angelita Sievert-Fernandez, clinical psychologist and Kythe Child Life Program manager.
“Many times, we have also provided for their physical needs like chemotherapy medicines and financial support for medical procedures. This is what the Kythe Child Life Program is about. It is understanding the child’s life in the hospital and responding to their needs in a holistic way. Because in Child Life we make sure “the hospital is not only a place to heal, but also a place to learn play and grow.” Fernandez said.
Kythe debriefs volunteers on the emotional impact of the illness on the kids.
Kythe’s program is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Corporate volunteers may avail of Kythe’s corporate accounts, through any of the following donation packages — Sagot Kita (Adopt-A Hospital Package), Kapitan Kimo ( Adopt-a-Patient Package), Kapit-Kamay (Adopt-A-Child Life Team Package).
Kythe also offers a free forum among Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility managers in the business community, scheduled on June 29 at AIM Conference Center. (PNA) RMA/SDT/utb
During the early stages of the torrential rains, that ultimately inundated Metro Manila (MM) and many regions of Luzon, Angie’s first born, Amaya, now 4, was brought to the hospital for an up and down fever that had been going on for a couple of days already.
Not wanting to take any risks, especially that the bad weather showed no signs of letting up, they decided to have Amaya checked for dengue and true enough she had it.
While it was a relief that a hospital was located not too far away and on higher grounds, and Amaya received treatment immediately, we could not help but worry about the alarming situation that MM and the rest of Luzon was having in the face of continuous heavy downpour that was fast engulfing and threatening the lives of people.
As much as we did not want to see another specter of the proportions of Ondoy, when it visited Manila in 2009, wrecking havoc on lives and properties, the fact is, it was seemingly getting to be a repeat.
We could only thank God that Iñaki’s family is now in safer grounds, even if he was not with Ay, Klaus and Maive, because of his job in Davao. Angie’s place has always been okay and even if Angie was not around, Rodin was there for Mayumi.
Our worry now was more on how people were coping up in the affected areas.
It is never easy when people are displaced and find themselves crammed in small place with inadequate facilities for comfort, limited food, and with only few belongings saved to call their own.
But hope is not lost when there are organizations, corporations, and people, either fortunate or less fortunate, but with kind hearts and selfless motivations, who react immediately by donating food and other relief items, while others come forward as volunteers for any assistance they can do to help and alleviate the lives of the victims that are housed in temporary shelters now.
It makes us happy to be able to help in our own little way by coursing it through Angie because we are in Cebu. Angie knows best what to give and we will continue helping while we can. It is very fulfilling.
It even made us more happier, as parents, that Rodin and Angie has started showing and inculcating in the minds of Amaya and Mayumi, the meaning of help, compassion and love for their fellow-being, especially the less fortunate and more so to victims of calamities, as they have seen now.
Angie has been telling us that aside from the used clothes, toys, water, toiletries, and ready to eat food they have donated, they also hard-boiled around 400 pieces of egg, cooked rice, and I don’t know what else, for distribution.
Most of all we are praying that soon enough the victims, with the help of government, both national and local, will start picking up the pieces of their lives and make a heroic comeback and recoup their loses for a better future.
As I write, I hear and saw beautiful, no doubt expensive fireworks up in the ritzy subdivision in the mountains in celebration for something. Paz and I could only shake our heads. What a waste of money. It could have feed the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Luzon.
It was nice to have Angie and family come to Cebu last week to visit us, while at the same time to attend the 49th Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) Annual Convention. The PAP has now conferred on her the title of Certified Specialist in Counseling Psychology and Certified Developmental Psychologist. This are now dreams come true. Congratulations!
But what really made our days during their visit are our new laughable experiences with Amaya and Mayumi – their ways and antics. They were talkative and aggressive that I pitied Maitina, who Chavi described was having a ‘culture’ shock. It took quite a while before she started inter-acting with the Manila duo.
That is what happens when you don’t see them often. You will always be surprised by the way they have grown, the way the look, the change in demeanor, and the most amazing thing of all – how articulate they have become and you will love to tease them already, especially Mayumi.
Looking forward to seeing Klaus and Maive one of these days.
Today August 25, and every year on this day, is always a celebration of mixed emotions. It is Angie’s birthday, but at the same time it is papa’s death anniversary. Both occasions always manifest that, while happy and sad on one hand, on the other hand you are dealing with reality and unbelievability.
Reality is that Angie is 37 years old now! Would you believe that? Unbelievably, however, is that pa has been dead for 20 years now! That is reality.
Happy birthday, Gie! May you have many more happy, healthy birthdays to come. It was a candle and flowers for pa this morning.
Incidentally, on the other side of the globe, Paul, my brother Rudy’s second son, is also celebrating his birthday today.
I should have written this last night, but the reported 7.6-magnitude earthquake that made me unstable in my seat at about 8:47 made me forget all about it as I was engrossed at watching and listening on TV latest updates, which among other things involved tsunami warnings.
The quake struck off the coast of the country, with its epicenter about 65 miles southeast of the coastal town of Guiuan in eastern Samar. Thankfully the tsunami alert was lifted later.
What I was about to write was simply to mention that it was my mother’s 2nd death anniversary. How time flies!
Haven’t seen ma for two years and yet everything is still vivid about her. We all miss her and will continue to miss her.
Our consolation is knowing and feeling that wherever she is, she is there interceding for us.
Thanks ma. thanks for all the memories. It will be cherished til the day we join you and the rest who have gone ahead.
Not my intention to stop updating this page any longer. Somehow I get overwhelmed at how fast the days are passing by that I can’t seem to keep track anymore family events of which this page is mostly all about.
Suffice to say that all is doing well – Iñaki in Davao, Angie in Manila and Chavi in Cebu. Their future even looks promising as Iñaki just finished a month-study at AIM courtesy of Petron. Angie, only recently received the following invitation:
Dear Angie,
Congratulations! We have received many abstracts but it is with great pleasure that I can inform you that your abstract has been selected and we’re looking forward to your presentation at the First Interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare in South Africa on 12 and 13 April 2013 at the Netcare Head Office in Sandton. Please confirm that you are still available and will be able to travel to South Africa for the conference before Thursday 6 December 2012 so that we can finalize the program.
Kind regards,
Annemarie
Dr Annemarie Oberholzer (RN; D Cur)
President
Organisation for Paediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA)
Postal Address: PO Box 16039; Lyttelton; 0140; South Africa
Cell: +27 (0) 825625912 http://www.opssa.org.za
While Chavi may not be going anywhere, he, however, has his own house now in Lapu-lapu and has contributed a great deal of knowledge and leadership in his job at Crimson Resort Hotel.
You guys are making me and your ma proud – no end.
Am just simply amazed at how they found their niche and got stuck to it – except for Angie who is smart enough to choose a course where she could work at her own time and still be able to go places. During my time, at any of their ages, I probably had had 3 or 4 different jobs already. That’s how volatile I was. Mommy Pie is very happy nobody took after me.
We are equally proud and happy the way Klaus, Maive, Amaya, Mayumi and Maitina are growing up. Klaus had his first communion already and less of a devil now. Maive, as always, growing prettier and girlish, Amaya, getting more curious, knowledgeable and articulate and, thus, throwing more ‘matured’ questions at a very young age. Mayumi, I don’t know – elfish is the best word to describe her and Amaya’s torturer. Maitina – nobody beats her. She is the fashion trend-setter of them all!
Sure was nice to have all of them here during the holidays, but unfortunately it was not all fun and pleasure. Somehow nature unleashes some kind of virus in the air and the small ones succumb to it. Between coughs and colds and throwing up and fevers and visits to the doctor, days become worrisome and stressful,
It always starts in Angie’s room and so before the doctor even makes any diagnosis on what is wrong, the room is always blamed for harboring bad spirit.
But it has always been like that ever since each one of them, from Iñaki, Angie and Chavi, have had something strange to say about the room. Now, nobody wants to stay in Angie’s room anymore especially if they bring along their kids.
It will become a new normal in 2013 that if their respective family gets reunited again, that we just have to give up our room and stay in Angie’s room so each one can have their own room and be able to rest peacefully. I don’t think the bad spirit, if it really exist, will care to bother old people anymore. Had a good night sleep when I was made to move to that room one night. Any way, for whatever good it brings, we plan of contracting a “spiritista” or a quack medium who would try to ease out whoever the unseen force is – gracefully.
But, really, we cannot thank enough for what the last year had been for all of us. All continued to have stable jobs and successfully meeting new challenges. God has continued blessing every one with good health too.
We can only hope that 2013 will continue to be beneficial for the country, for the people and for our respective families in particular.
We just have to continue praying, believing and trusting God.
One morning, a few days ago, I was at the front yard looking at the plants, the flowers and what have you, as I always do, when at the corner of my eye I saw something flying and moving. Took a closer look at it and what I saw gave me goosebumps. It was honey bees colonizing a branch of a ficus-like tree growing in the yard.
Am sure they moved in during the night because that afternoon, Paz and I – we normally spend our time at the back and front yards before it grows dark – didn’t notice anything unusual.
The bees were swarming and the beehive was getting bigger that if I didn’t do something about it, that we will find ourselves confined inside the house most of the time as the hive was near our porch. Definitely it was going to be hazardous for anybody going out to the front yard, but I didn’t want my routine going out around the house interrupted by these insects.
From experience and from contacts with honey gatherers I learned that smoke is what disperses the bees and drives them away.
So with the empty flower pot that we have, I started building a fire and putting dried and moist leaves to smoke the bees out. The problem, however, was that I could only generate so much smoke as I did not want the neighbor complaining about it – especially that their air condition unit was very near the bee hive. In fact the smoke that drifted towards the bee hive did not stirred them at all.
Not wanting to be outsmarted by these insects, I sought the help of the internet and the result was simply unbelievable.
ehow.com in their, ‘Home remedies to get rid of bees’, recommended the use of moth balls, and luckily enough I had extra of this item that I kept to repel silverfishes. But, In lieu of pantyhose I used plastic hand gloves and pricked the finger parts with the biggest needle I had so its odor would come out more noticeably, and, presto! – in less than 5 minutes, it was like using the famous idiom – stirring the hornet’s nest – as it did when the bees started detaching themselves from the branch, swarming nearby and getting lost later.
I must admit I am not really too good at updating on time notable family happenings/events of which this page is all about. Nevertheless, I will try to remember and relate the most significant ones.
Topping it of course is the invitation from the Organization for Pediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA), in partnership with Netcare, for Angie to be one of the speakers at their Inaugural South African Conference: Supporting Children in Healthcare, the first interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare, held last April 12-13, 2013.
Not only was she invited to speak, but was also asked to start the pre-conference International Forum Discussion, a day before, at the Netcare Head Office highlighting Child Life Services in the Philippines and how (if at all) it differs from the USA and how it can benefit Child Support Services in South Africa.
Angie was the lone Asian invited to present her paper on the “Developmental Characteristics in, Chronically Ill Filipino Children’s Concept of Pain: An Exploratory Study”, and talk about it.
After that well-received presentation in SA, Angie is again preparing for a trip to the US where she will be attending the Child Life Council 31st Annual Conference on Professional Issues in Denver, Colorado from May 16-19, 2013. She is also hoping to pass the exams to be given and obtain her credential as Certified Child Life Specialist. Hope she gets it.
She will also take this opportunity to visit relatives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Iñaki is doing well in Davao. I am sure he will even exceed expectations in his job as he is equally well motivated, too, now that there is a newly opened recreation facility for flying ultra-light planes in Mati. In fact he received water dousing again for successfully flying a higher category plane. The place is new that he could have been the first client to try both plane and airfield.
Chavi also doing well and contented where he is now at Crimson resort hotel. Joining Crimson seems to be the best thing that happened to his career. Crimson is getting to be well known and fast growing.
Can’t ask for more for the three of them, their spouses and children. All are doing well in their own rights and the children growing up fast and smart.
I can only thank God for the blessings and good health.
In my last post on this page I mentioned about Angie preparing for a trip to the US to attend the Child Life Council 31st Annual Conference on Professional Issues in Denver, Colorado from May 16-19, 2013.
This, after honoring an invitation from the Organization for Pediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA), in partnership with Netcare, for her to be one of the speakers at their Inaugural South African Conference: Supporting Children in Healthcare, the first interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare, held last April 12-13, 2013.
What she attended in Denver was a gathering of Child Life Specialist from all over the US and the world. Delegates included those from South Africa, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Kuwait and the Philippines, represented by Angie.
After the conference, Angie proceeded to the states of New Jersey and New York where she had the opportunity to observe child life programs at the John La Conti, M.D. Fund Child Life Department of the Saint Barnabas Medical Center and at the Tisch Hospital, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, respectively. The observation was more on what and how services of child life programs were provided to children and their families. These were added educational hospital tour on child life program after visiting one at the Children’s Hospital in Denver.
While in the US, Angie learned that, effective March 2013, she has been considered a Certified Practitioner in Therapeutic Play Skills after being awarded the certificate by the Play Therapy International, UK and the Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy.
The certificate is a culminating award after undergoing workshops and trainings in HK, where Angie participated in September 2010 and March 2011. Her internship, which was under the supervision of a certified play therapist from the UK, on line, was done in government hospitals in the Philippines.
Congratulations, Angie! Looks like more titles now are being added after your name.
Congratulations indeed! Be proud as we all are of what you are doing.Your field of work is inspiring and much needed these days.Thank you for helping make the world a better place for the children.
There is no stopping Angie from soaring higher in what she is doing.
While this is good for her professional advancement, what it means, however, is that today, more than any other time in the country’s history, the important issue of pediatric support or child life service is in the forefront of international discussion and concern.
After having been invited by the Organization for Pediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA) to present her paper on the “Developmental Characteristics in, Chronically Ill Filipino Children’s Concept of Pain: An Exploratory Study” at their Inaugural South African Conference: Supporting Children in Healthcare, the first interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare, held last April 12-13, 2013, Angie has again received an invitation to present her latest study, ‘Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of the Hospitalized Child: The Role of the Child Life Program’.
Below is the letter of invitation:
Dear Angelita Sievert-Fernandez,
In behalf of the Board of Directors of the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP), I am pleased to inform you that the abstract you submitted entitled, Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of the Hospitalized Child: The Role of The Child Life Program has been accepted for a paper presentation in the joint 4th Congress of the ASEAN Union of Psychological Societies (ARUPS) and the 50th Annual Convention of the Psychological Association of the Philippines, to be held at Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines on October 23-26, 2013. Congratulations!
Very truly yours,
JAY A. YACAT
Chair, Scientific Program Committee
The joint 4th ARUPS Congress and 50th PAP Annual Convention will focus on the role of ASEAN psychologists in building hope and resilience among individuals, families, organizations and communities amidst adversity. Among the specific topics to be explored under the convention theme are (1) disaster preparedness and response; (2) peace, conflict and violence; (3) surviving human adversity; (4) change management; (5) poverty reduction, social development and community empowerment; and (6) applied positive psychology.
Today marks the 48th death anniversary of my older brother, Angel, one of the subjects when I wrote “9/11s of my life” (https://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/911s-of-my-life/). How time flies. I was inconsolable when he died. He was not only a big brother to me, he was my confidante. It was hard to accept then that at his prime, at 28 years of age, he would be gone forever. It was a consolation to me that a year after I was recruited by the US Navy. It helped assuage my feeling of loss, although there were times when I longed for him. Now, 48 years after, I feel my longing is getting shorter. I am glad I have lived this long to be able to see how his family went through so well without him. It matters because the time of waiting before I get to see him again – if ever this happens – is closing and somehow that feeling is somewhat relieving. I realize now that if God has willed you to live longer it is because there are things undone that you still have to accomplish. But, it is never your choosing. It his His. Life is not about luck. It is about fate. Thus, when ones time is up, the reconnection that one makes with those long departed whom you missed terribly in life is worth the waiting.
I can’t seem to keep up writing on this page. Days come and go so fast and between events happening also changeably pronto inside, around you and the world, I just can’t seem to find enough time updating this page.
But between the last entry I made and the aftermath of the twin killers, Bohol earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, we had had great time having the children and grandchildren visiting us. Boy, how the grandchildren have all grown up and have minds of their own, which makes it interesting in dealing with each of them. Where they are now in age and what they have learned growing up is directly proportional to the noise and antics they make, which make the house full and chaotic.
All the children are doing well in their respective jobs except for our daughter-in-law, Ay (Iñaki’s wife) who was lured to a high paying job only to find out that she was entering the lion’s den. We found ourselves guilty as we gave her our two cents worth of advice thinking that the advantages weighed more than the disadvantages. We were all wrong as she found out later, but fortunately her old employer has left the door open for her come back – the prize for being a good worker. Behind it is always a moral lesson.
This morning, Novermber 23, I met Angie at the airport and we had brunch together. Coming from a medical mission in the suburbs of Tacloban, she arrived tired and hungry.
Earlier this morning she guested in ABS-CBN’s Salamat Dok program where she was interview about her work in helping children cope with the psychological trauma inflicted on them by super typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan.
Talking to her later, how she wished she had more time to spare as she saw the need for her kind of profession to help children, and even older people people, cope with the trauma experienced during the typhoon and be able to live normal lives again.
Does not seem easy to treat/process children whose lives have changed drastically bad or worse in a short time – either losing homes, losing family members or losing those which has always been familiar to them. The impact to their young brains is unimaginable and normality/cure will depend on the severity of the trauma.
She was telling me about the devastation, which she described as a scene straight out of a disaster movie. She took videos that I haven’t seen in the media before and they were simply heart-wrenching. Once I get those videos I will try to share it with you in my regular blog.
Suffice to say that in an extensive destruction such as seen in Tacloban and its suburbs, there are still many survivors that are in need of food, water and other essentials. But, most importantly what is badly needed are temporary shelters that could house the homeless, especially the kids, the old and the infirm.
With all kinds of aid donated by the international community, I hope the national government and the non-governmental organization will try to expedite the delivery of the same so it could reach those needing it badly sooner than later.
This is how TV shows with irresponsible hosts/anchors can easily destroy your name and reputation. This happened only a few nights ago with Paz and I were watching it. We had to call Angie immediately late that night to confirm if what the hosts were saying were really Angie’s words because it didn’t sound right. The following is Angie’s version of what really happened:
As a clinician, I sometimes get requests to be a resource person in certain TV shows. They ask for the objective perspective of the professional on a topic the hosts/anchors may be discussing, and in my case, usually involving children and families. Yesterday, I accommodated a request to talk about “selfies” that was then aired on the news program, Bandila, later that night. I rarely watch myself on TV but thankfully, this time, I did. In the particular segment, the show seemed to want to point out that “selfies” are narcissistic with a narration on why it is such and the news anchor adding, “sabi ng isang psychologist..”. I wish that didn’t pertain to me but after a bit, it was my face on national TV briefly quoting studies done on FB users and then shortly after a very short clip of me saying something to this effect (can’t remember verbatim), “..may component ng lack of empathy and stepping on other people’s toes to get what they want.” Just that one liner that seemed to insinuate my opinion to support how selfies are narcissistic & why this is so. I was flabbergasted, to say the least, because in the interview done at home, I specifically explained that one has to take into account the motivation behind, the frequency of, etc., for one to consider a selfie as such. The line they chose to show was from a description I made of what narcissism may entail and how you can differentiate a selfie that may be a means for self-exploration, self-expresssion or a desire to connect to others (which I explained in detail but was not shown, for time constraints or maybe because it did not really serve their purpose) or otherwise. It is now a first hand experience on how very easily media can take things out of context by using only portions of what one says to serve their own purpose, even when that is not how it was explained nor is it the views of the interviewee. Unfortunately, they are the ones in control and listening to myself in that clip on national TV, seemingly supporting what the show wanted to convey all along (may agenda na pala even before the interview!) made me cringe. I know exactly what I said during the interview and it is definitely not only that one phrase the news program chose to crop and show. It is even more frustrating as Bandila, in an FB account, is said to be an “International Emmy-nominated late night news broadcast”. If it is held in such high regard, should they not show even a semblance of that regard to the professionals whose opinions they sought and who will be in their program? It is a lesson learned the unfortunate way for me and it is a confirmation that really, some will and can take me out of context for their benefit, despite my reputation being the one at stake. To make matters worse, I don’t even get paid a centavo for my time.
Her vision of Angie – her education and work – was very prophetic. She seemed to have foreseen, and this she told Angie, that the latter will be traveling the world because of her work.
And she has been doing that ever since she earned her PhD in Psychology, attending conferences and being invited to talk in her field of discipline.
As I write, Dr. Angie, as she is called professionally, is en route to Toronto, Canada where she will attend the 46th Congress of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) to be held on October 22-25. Her abstract, “Addressing The Psychosocial Needs Of The Hospitalized Child: The Role Of The Kythe Child Life Program”, was accepted for an e-poster presentation. The poster will be displayed electronically and will be available for viewing on e-Poster stations throughout the congress.
Angie, a Counseling Psychologist and the Child Life Program Manager of Kythe Foundation Inc., will be joining a group of medical practitioners in pediatric oncology that forms part of the program My Child Matters – Philippines (MCM), supported by the Sanofi Espoir Foundation that works to raise awareness on pediatric cancer and to educate nurses, doctors and allied medical professionals working with children with cancer and their families throughout the Philippines.
Kythe CLP is learning about what the child-patient thinks and feels while confined in the hospital and making sure that “the hospital is not only a place to heal, but also a place to learn, play and grow.”
It was only in May 2014 that Angie was invited as a panel presenter in The State of International Pediatric Psychosocial Services, an invitational International Summit, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was the lone delegate from the country.
Will see where she goes next.
The only downside to all these travels is that I get to be left alone because my wife takes over in looking after Angie’s two daughters. They have a term for it here – APOstolic mission. APO is a Filipino lingo for grandchild. It is simply a family affair/business that has to be attended to by the grannies as dictated by custom and culture.
Since I am talking about family already, let me just include here that Iñaki, who has been working with Petron in Davao, has been moved up to a much larger area and a bigger responsibility in South Metro Manila. We are indeed very pleased with the movement.
Am sure Chavi’s time will come.
Needless to say we are proud where they are now in their careers.
It has been almost a year now – March 20, to be exact – since I had a total right knee replacement and I am so pleased having decided to go for it at the right time and for the right reasons. I can only thank God for the strength and the means, my family for their care and support during my difficult times, and last but not least of all, the doctor whom I trusted so much and who in turn made sure I can do away with the cane for as long as age permits.
Actually, I had been brisk walking every other day for around 45 minutes, six months after the surgery, but, lately, however, I had to stop and shifted instead to mounting a stationary bike and doing other exercises just at home. The reason for this is that I don’t want to aggravate what I think is the overused condition of my left knee.
It must be remembered that before my right knee got fixed, I was most of the time favoring my left leg when walking, and most especially when climbing up and down the stairs. It got to a point where I could feel and hear the knee cracking when it carries my shifted weight and effort is exerted. I knew that if I wasn’t careful enough, that it would get to be as weak as my right knee was. This is the timing I am talking about – to still have one knee serving its purpose while the other is being replaced.
In time my right leg with the metal-jointed knee was getting stronger than my left leg. It was more noticeable when walking downhill and supporting my weight as it gets shifted to the left. The pain I was feeling definitely told me that I had had enough and to go easy and not abuse further the deteriorating state of my left knee.
With hindsight I knew what to expect next, but I also knew that there wouldn’t be any second knee replacement at all. To have undergone knee replacement once, restraint is the better option to follow to stay happy, healthy and sane.
So much with my knees but, indeed, how time flies!
As I write, our eldest son Iñaki has just landed in Davao en route to Mate where he will start a new chapter in his working career, this after his 17 years stint with Petron Corp.
It looks like the All Seeing Eye in heaven has prepared his stay in Petron to be able to run business ventures owned by his new employer which, among other things, include flying ultra-light planes. Iñaki is an accomplished pilot of ultra-light planes, and like his laudable performance with Petron, I am sure he will find success in bringing the Mindanao SAGA Flying Club to greater heights that will make his new boss proud.
Suffice to say that Iñaki, like his two younger siblings, Angie (Certified Counseling and Developmental Psychologist) and Chavi (Cebu Crimson Hotel Duty Manager) have finally found his niche that will define his future from here on.
Quierosaber's Blog 
This is a new page that I have added. I will be using this page to share with you ordinary, unusual or interesting events happening with me or my family or around us. It could be expected events or events that may just come. It will be more personal than anything else. I may be sharing with you happy or sad events, cheerful or woeful. Whatever it is, I want you all to be a part of what I think, what I do, how I feel and how I live. I welcome you all to this page and I thank you for your interest.
God willing, my daughter Angie and her baby girl, Amaya, will be arriving from Manila tomorrow for a few days visit. Amaya is a survivor after she and her twin sister, Bianca, were born prematurely. It was a difficult pregnancy that cost the life of the latter. Amaya will be 2 years old pretty soon and she is one heck of a kid. After storing words she has been hearing all these times in her memory bank, she is starting to blurt them out. Though incoherent still, the sounds, however, are discernible. She understands Tagalog, Visaya, Spanish and English. She is a whiz at puzzles for her age and she can distinguish clearly a circle from a square and triangle. She has no fear of the sea. She has been mumbling to her mother that she wants to come to ‘ebu (Cebu), avon, (avion- spanish for plane), papoo (to see papooch-thats me). How sweet!
Because of their coming, I don’t think I shall have the time to blog. Please bear with me.
While Angie was preparing and packing their things for the flight back to Manila in the afternoon of May 27th, a brother of mine arrived from the U.S. in the morning. He is retired anesthesiologist residing in Jacksonville, Florida. He normally comes every year to visit our dotage mother. It is always a happy occasion every time he comes for a visit. The house gets very noisy and everybody seem animated with his presence. There is always food on the table. His coming seems to give ma an extended life! Both he and ma are wearing hearing aids and when ma’s hearing aid batteries are faltering, there could be shouting matches between them! Every one gets to enjoy a good laugh and that is just what we need after practically a year of existence under a somber mood at ma’s house.
Please bear with me then if my blogs will be coming out far in between. I need to keep my brother company and make sure his stay will be worthwhile. He always looks forward to his yearly visit with us as much as we eagerly expect his coming. I don’t want him to feel disappointed. I only want for him to have fond memories when he goes back to the U.S.
Until next time, Angie and Amaya. Welcome Oger!
and when tito rudy flies off again, u will be coming to baby sit “she-who-is-always-calling-papoo-and-gardog!” 🙂
Hahaha!!! Unless my much awaited pension is given (if ever), the plane ticket will be yours.
My son, Iñaki, is probably going through the most thrilling phase of his life when he goes solo in an ultra-light plane today. He is an avid flier in computer flight simulation, taking on all kinds of planes, but, to actually fly all alone without any instructor beside him serving as a security blanket, is a test of his ability and capability to fly bigger planes.
I never thought Iñaki will ever take flying lessons. I remember one time I was painting the front portion of the house, sitting on an scaffolding about 20 feet high. I asked Iñaki to come up and help me. He did climbed up and sat down with me but after a while I noticed he kept on moving and was not at ease. I looked at him and he was not smiling and apparently not enjoying his stay up with me. Little did I know that he was already having butterflies in his stomach exhibiting this fear of heights. He probably was cussing me going down, after I told him to do so with utmost care.
He may have been finding ways to overcome this fear. And the only way to do it is to go up high all the time and get used to it. No doubt he was able to conquer it, but he did it the most expensive but exhilarating way!
Congratulations King! Am sure you’ll get that certificate of flying proficiency.
A slightly frustrated pilot finally soared up in the sky, specifically over the plains of central Luzon making a life-long dream come true.
Am talking of course about Iñaki who made his first solo flight in an MX II Quicksilver ultralight plane with Rotax 503 engine (50 h.p.) and experience the fun and excitement of what they call the “open cockpit, seat-of-the-pants flying.”
Iñaki could have been flying a long time ago had we allowed him to enter the nation’s premier military school, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), back when he was finishing his high school in Ateneo de Zamboanga. He could have chosen later the Philippine Air Force (PAF) branch of service for his military career.
We dissuaded him, however, from proceeding to PMA because of my gut-feeling apprehensions on hazing inside the military school.
It was not hazing, per se, that I was afraid of. It was Iñaki’s appearance, his light brown hair and very fair complexion that might make it a fair game to some brutish upper classmen, venting their misplaced anger on someone as revenge for the same “atrocity” perpetrated on them when they were plebes.
I was just being on the side of safety for my son, knowing things could accidentally be worse, from the many that were not able to make it through anymore.
He was also advised against getting into the PMA, at that time, by two of his recently graduated cousins.
Never a moment have we all regretted making that decision.
At the end, Iñaki got a well paying job in a very stable oil company after the firm took the risk of hiring a Fine Arts graduate.
The only downside is that the demand and effort for efficiency in your job makes your hair turn white prematurely!
But, what the heck, he is always in the comfort of his family and this means a lot.
He does not find himself dropping bombs in enemy territories.
He finds himself instead immersed in a fight for market leadership among the competing established big oil companies and the new players coming in.
But, what is gratifying, above all, is that he was still able to fulfill his dream of flying and, by whatever type of plane you are controlling, the spine-tingling, breathtaking experience is the same.
And I think while our adventurer was out in the sky having the wildest experience in his life, all of us grounded loved ones were praying like mad for his safe touchdown. Hahaha!!!
So were we, so were we!!! But this machine is safe. If it stalls, like a big bird, it will simply glide and find the most comfortable place to perch!
My brother Rudy and I are embarking on a one-day trip tomorrow, June 9th, that will take us first to Ormoc, then to Tacloban via the north-western side, and on to the other end of San Juanico bridge which is Samar already, make a quick U-turn thereafter and continue our return trip back to Ormoc via Baybay.
Passing through Baybay is going to be sentimental journey, of sorts, as this is where we were all, practically, born, grew up and finished high school. We will be passing by the old house, which I think is still standing up, and where we all have, individually, our own unforgettable memories.
One can’t help feeling nostalgic looking at the house. It has now become a grade school and quarters, at the same time, for the Protestant pastor running the school.
Where there used to be a big yard with banana trees, coconut trees, and other fruit bearing trees, and also a half-basketball court, now stands a Protestant church.
The last time my bother and I went to the site of the old house and got permission to see the inside once again, I was so emotionally struck that tears welled from my eyes. The three big rooms were still there, the alternating hardwood floor of dark and light colored boards, which we used to polish by foot with a coconut husk, were still intact and the ceilings were still the same.
The only difference was that the big stairs fronting the road was now facing the other way around, the back.
The old house is the only remaining personal link now we have in Baybay. For as long as this house stands and looks the same way it has looked when we were living in it, we shall continue having affinity and longing for it. For as long as it exists it will remain a silent testament of our youth’s happiness and sorrows, triumphs and defeats, successes and frustrations, sadness and laughter.
It is where it all started. The springboard of our dreams.
It was our home. Like a homing pigeon, this is always where we came back in our youth. This was our nest of comfort, of joy, of security, of nourishment and of togetherness.
have a safe and happy trip… what baybay is to you is what greenhills will always be to us… and there is just no better place – no matter the places and heights you reach – like home…
You guys are making me cry!!!!!
Exactly, Angie! Very analogous and you said it rightly.
Today was Rudy’s last day with us. Like anything that comes to an end, his visit, too, has ended. Eton and I took him to the airport late this morning for his flight back to the U.S.
Ma’s house is once again quiet.
It’s back to reality and normalcy in our lives after practically 3 weeks of enjoyable food, funny stories when we were growing up, laughter, going to the mall for groceries, visiting cempark, a quick excursion south of Cebu, having ma’s hearing aid repaired, a visit to the dentist for ma and Gang’s dental care, a moment of anxiousness over ma’s health when she suffered from indigestion and a one day trip to Leyte.
This trip to Leyte, starting in Ormoc City going to Tacloban, via Kananga, was something educational for Rudy and me. It was only now, already in our 60s, that we learned that along the way are some Japanese shrines in honor of Japanese soldiers who died in World War ll. Kananga, Carigara and Villaba, among others, saw fierce fighting between American and Japanese forces with the latter defending their strongholds.
Famous of these place are the Buga-buga hills. These shrines are frequently visited by big Japanese memorial tour groups. These areas are said to be the subject of bone hunting expeditions in the past and object of pilgrimage by domestic and foreign tourists until now.
We were lucky to have found a car-for-hire driver who related to us and took us to these historical spots.
This, I think, is the highlight of Rudy’s visit with us this time, not to mention marveling the sight of the San Juanico bridge.
Until next time Oger. Have a pleasant and safe trip.
On the same day that my brother Rudy (Oger, to me) leaves for the U.S., my granddaughter Amaya will be celebrating her 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday, little girl!
We called her early this morning and I heard her saying happy birthday, I think, to herself this time. She probably thought, yesterday I was saying it for you, today I am saying it for me! For those who do not know, there is only 2 hours separating our birthdays. Do I have to tell you our zodiac signs?
She was pretty excited having balloons in her room and some toys she already received. In fact she was already playing the harmonica and the tambourine for me this morning.
As Mommy Pie and I were talking to her, her papa Rodin was probably 30,000 ft in the air flying from Cebu to be with her on her special day.
As am writing this, Amaya’s mother, Angie, must be very busy in the kitchen preparing some food to be serve for Amaya’s guests when they converge at the Philam village playground this afternoon.
Among the birthday celebrant’s special guests will be Kuya Klaus and baby Maive.
Cheers and wishes for many, many more birthdays for Amaya girl!
Prayers for Bianca who, in spirit, will be at Amaya’s side all the time!
It has been a weekend of mixed emotions. Melancholic, happy, anxious, reflective.
It started with Oger’s departure back to Jacksonville, Florida.
After doing practically the same things daily, for three weeks, late in the afternoon and just before dinner, like drinking beer with fried angulas (small bolinao) or fried squid or peanuts and dried salami for an appetizer, and then, after dinner, you just sit around telling stories, reminiscing the past and having a good laugh and all of a sudden the practice stops, it gets awhile before you get jolted that it is back to reality. Happy days are gone and you miss the fun.
What is consoling, as always, is that you have your own family to go to, who takes over and makes the transition to reality soothing.
For a long time now we have known that Angie was leaving on a month-long observation study in one of Australia’s pediatric hospitals specially focusing on pain management.
We had been anxious all along because she will be separated from her daughter this long and we all know how difficult it is going to be for mother and daughter who have been having teacher-student relationship and have been playmates all these two years of Amaya’s life.
I know exactly how it feels because there were times, when Angie was still a kid in Cebu and I was working in Zamboanga, that we can’t somehow speak to each other but just let the precious minutes pass by while hearing each other sob.
It is going to be hard, but we have it all planned already how we can assuage the month long separation so that life for both will be easier, enjoyable and still fruitful.
Well, another main event coming soon is Chavi’s decision to finally end his solo life and take on a partner (a girl, of course!) for life.
Am happy for him but at the same time reflective because I no longer will have, at my beck and call, a partner, a collaborator, an assistant and a buddy that will make sure I get down safely from a tree which I end up later having difficulty climbing down. He has rescued me in a tight fix up the tree several times in the past.
But like they say, you lose one, you gain one.
Mix emotions. Everything to be remembered, while we can.
De aqui hasta el mes de Agosto, casi cada uno de nosotros en la familia tenemos nuestros programas de vuelo. Between now until the month of August, nearly every one of us in the family will have our own flying schedule. We have never seen any thing like this before when so many flights are booked for so short a span of time.
Today Angie leaves for Australia and will be away for a month. She has been psyching up/conditioning Amaya’s mind on this and the little girl, 2 years old at that, seems to understand it, although, at the end, the latter also seems to be telling her mother that it is all okay, but better if her Papa and her Yaya are to go instead.
My heart bleeds for my granddaughter and so my wife booked me for a flight to Manila on June 27th. Amaya’s “morning pappoch” on all hours of the day and her hugging and kissing the phone when we both talk incoherently, though, nevertheless, have understanding of one another has prompted me to start packing my things already. I do not know how good and successful will I be in taking her mind off her mother, but,looks like the little girl has already an array of books in her “library” prepared for our reading periods. Vamos a ver quien le vendra el sueño primero? Supongo que va ser yo!
I will be in Manila for three days. I doubt very much if I can do some blogging at all. To make sure that I will be at par with Amaya’s alertness during the day, am bringing along some pills that will help me have a sound sleep in the evening. This has always been my problem. New place, new bed, new environment always disrupts my sleeping pattern.
A few days after I am back in Cebu, the gang of Iñaki, minus wife Ay, will be visiting us for a short vacation and guess who are coming also? Rodin and Amaya!
Am sure there will be ruckus everyday with Klaus, Maive and Amaya in the same place. It’s not like they are always together in Manila. Am sure, too, that the house will be converted into an instant play ground, but, what the heck, they can make all the mess and turn the place inside out, at the end it is still a home! Am curious if Amaya will still be looking for her mama during these days.
After a little over a week, they will all fly back to Manila.
We are just thankful that Iñaki and the children’s visit have coincided with Angie’s trip. At least Amaya will be in the company of her cousins and somehow her attention will get diverted rather than having a situation wherein she would be feeling alone and will be constantly reminded of her mama. I do not know how the evenings will go though.
Accompanying Iñaki’s entourage when they fly back to Manila will be Mommy Pie. What this means is that Amaya will have another companion to be invited to her “library” when she goes back home. Mommy Pie will stay for four days entertaining the little girl.
Then it won’t be long until Angie arrives. We will see if by then Amaya shall have learned to say, “Welcome back mama!”
Que hay en Agosto? Pues tendrais que esperar queridos lectores. Lo escribire otro dia.
We are eagerly expecting the arrival of the young members of the “demolition” gang tomorrow from Manila accompanied by Rodin and Iñaki, fathers both, but less Angie and Ay, both mothers of the young ones, who have work commitments.
They will be lying low for a while upon arrival, not only feeling a little tired from the trip, but mutely observing and making out where they have landed and perceiving if the territory is friendly.
Once they all sense the familiarity of the place, am pretty sure all hell will break loss and a grand ruckus will commence!
Starting tomorrow I will be abdicating my throne as head of the family and have my grandchildren reign for the duration of their stay. It is not always that they are here at the same time. There are just three of them, but you might as well assume that there are six of them!
They will be the King and Queens of my domain as I watch them rule the days, disorganizing things with impunity and following it with noise barrage.
But it will always be a welcome display of playful abandon of freedom!
All these do not mean, though, that I shall be having plenty of time in my hands to be blogging. Not really. I could end up being a referee or umpire, of sorts, which could be a whole day job ending late in the evening.
After nearly a couple of riotous weeks, we are back to our own selves in the house. Iñaki and his gang flew back to Manila and after all the crying and shouting and tantrums from the kids what you hear now is simply a deafening silence.
I cleaned the house yesterday and everywhere are still litters of toys, books, slippers and some clothes that are normally left behind until they come back again, and that is if it still fits them when they do come back for another vacation.
You seem to be hearing their voices but it is actually your mind trying to refresh whatever memories you remember them doing. The funny moments, incomprehensible words they utter, the endearing words they call you and the cause of petty quarrels between them. You can’t help being reflective and how you wish you have a bigger compound that could turn to an instant playground for them to let go of their energy, to frolic and enjoy.
Now I am back bringing Mommy Pie to work alone. I don’t have Maive anymore coming forward from the back seat and giving me her head every time I shout “cabeza!” She knows I have to hold her head and pull her ears with the crook of my arm. It is part of our morning drive ritual.
And while we are on the road, that same moment, we are visualizing Klaus slothfully eating his breakfast while watching cartoons on TV and Iñaki egging him on to eat, “come ya”, “pronto.” This, too, is a morning ritual that goes between father and son.
Simply put, “les echamos todos de menos.”
If there is one person getting excited and, perhaps, feeling ecstatic about tomorrow, it is no other than little girl Amaya. After over two weeks of observation in one of the children hospital in New South Wales, Australia, Angie is finally coming home.
Knowing how attached mother and daughter is to one another, the relatively short separation must have been felt like interminable to the mother, while to Amaya it was good reason enough to be grumpy, as days went by, and more clingy to her Ate Rica, who has served to be an adequate stand-in for Angie.
Makes one wonder what is in Amaya’s 2-year old mind about her mom not being able to be with her physically all these times. Why could she still see her mom talking to her in the computer and yet continue to be absent when she wakes up in the morning? Why all of a sudden, in the middle of the day, she is handed the cellphone because her mom is at the other end of the line?
It pays to have a proxy like Rica who has the patience, the intelligence and the commitment to follow well instructions on what to do with Amaya while Angie is away.
But I think what is magical really is the modern technology – the computer, the cellphone – where in an instant you can see or hear the person you are missing most and you love to be with.
Reminds me of Iñaki in the early 80s. Nothing yet of the IT we have now. I was with Purefoods then and was sent to Marikina for training at their abattoir and processing plant. It was going to be a long absence from home and it was heartbreaking to be separated from your family and Iñaki in particular, who was walking and learning to talk already. Boy, how I missed him!
And so it passed that after a few months my training finally ended. Can’t wait to go home. It was all Iñaki in my mind.
After landing in Cebu, took a taxi going to San Vicente village, where we used to stay with my in-laws. As the taxi entered San Nicolas St., there I saw Iñaki, chubby, white skinned with long blond hair, outside the house and on the street playing.
Told the taxi driver to stop, got out and started running towards Iñaki with tears streaming down my face. I called his name and as I got down in front of him, he looked at me and said, “Nganong hilak man ka?” (Why are you crying?)
I didn’t know what to do next, whether to cry more or to laugh out loud!
Will Angie be crying as soon as she sees Amaya? You bet! Especially if the little one blurts out, “Welcome back home mama!”
I feel the same way about Klaus even if I get to talk to him on the cellphone when I’m away for more than two days….With Maive now, it makes two of them. Good thing I am no longer required to be away in my area of coverage and the most I am out of the house is for overnight trips.
Funny. White skin, blonde hair, and the Visayan tongue! hehehehe
Funny, indeed! These are the ages when you won’t want them out of your sight or you will be missing a lot. It could be new words, new songs, new antics learned. It could even be their cries. But nothing can make you more lonely than not feeling their touch, not hearing them laugh, not being able to embrace them. Now you know what I mean! Your turn.
How time flies.
I can’t imagine it has been 40 years ago since three intrepid men made that historic trip, landed and got down on the surface of the moon to make that “One small step for man….” famous announcement that made the whole world beam with pride, watching in awe!
Can’t seem to believe that 40 years ago, I was in Quang Tri, Vietnam stealing a glimpse of the astronaut’s fateful journey to the moon being shown on TV. It was a rainy night and it was my turn to stand watch around the perimeter where Mobile Construction Battalion 11 (MCB-11) hutches were constructed and located. Under my poncho, I was in my complete battle gear.
40 years? Could have been 40 years now really, if you reckon it by the way you have wrinkled, your more-salt-than-pepper hair, your whitish beard, your eye-bags, the creaks and cracks and pain in some parts of your bone structure, particularly your joints.
40 years? There is no imagining really when you start seeing white hair growing now on your children’s head. Poor guys, but that is how long it has been!
40 years? Do you still have to ask, when reality has dawn that you are now a pensioner?
How time flies.
This has been a blissful week for us. Good news has been sneakily passed on from a confidential source to our youngest son Chavi, telling him that he made it to the Shangrila academy in China (Zhuhai?).
Chavi’s hard work, amiable demeanor, helpful and non-complaining attitude, coupled with his being truly a team person with leadership potential, all these, seem to have paid off at his Shangrila Cebu front office assignment.
We are happy for Chavi. To be rewarded with this privilege to attend a hotel institute abroad where they train future leaders of the industry is a fulfillment of a dream by any upstart who has plans of growing with the company and building his own niche.
We congratulate Chavi for this honor and distinction given him. For a “late bloomer son”, as Angie describes him, it is not bad at all!
Soar up and aim high always, Chavi, for that is the only way to get ahead and out of the corporate jungle of individual competitions. Believe in yourself that you can weather out crisis while on flight, in the same way that your belief in God has never faltered.
But, while you are up there, remember those on the ground who, in one way or another, cooperated and gave their best to assist you in your smooth ascend, trusting that where you will be, so should be their path to follow, with your help.
We are expecting the arrival of Angie and Amaya tomorrow, Aug. 12th.
We are excited to see them both but since Amaya has learned a lot more antics than the last time she was here, then we are more interested at what she has to show us.
From Angie, we heard she is now at that stage where her “no’s” are more than her “si’s” when you have her do something.
She is also at that stage where because of her “no’s”, as in “no mama”, she thinks she can assert and do away with what she wants.
They will be here until after Chavi’s wedding on Aug. 18th. But, that will be another piece written.
Again as we have them at home I may not be able to write as much as I want to. My time will be with them unless Amaya, of course, follows her routine of regular sleeping hours.
Otherwise, my hands are tied.
August 18th will be a red letter day for Chavi. Not only will it be his birthday, but on this day he has decided to tie the knot with Maisy and start being a husband to his wife. Like his Lola says, “Ah, es justo ya. Ya tiene edad!”
Like his brother Iñaki before him and, myself, we all got hitched at about the same ripe age and, “shockingly”, for the same reason.
Angie and Amaya are here now. Rodin will be arriving today, Sunday, Aug. 16th.
We are expecting Iñaki and family to arrive on the 17th.
It will be a short family gathering, of sorts, with ours accepting a new female member.
Paz and I will be marching off our youngest and the last of the siblings to matrimony. We can only wish him and Maisy the best of luck and all the happiness that this world can muster as they embark on this journey together. Reality, however, is that along the way there will be agonizing moments, too. This is what will temper the union such that the determination to succeed will be stronger and more keen.
2009 has been a relatively good year for us. It has been a blissful year, thanks God.
We can only hope that there will be many, many more of these years coming for all of us.
Congratulations and best wishes to the couple!
When Iñaki got married, I bought me a pair of new black leather slip-on shoes. I never did liked one with lace on my shoes and I’ve never been a fan of black colored shoes either. But, for this occasion I needed one to go with my dark pants and for once, look elegant myself.
Am not really a good dresser but I sure know what is comfortable for me and what looks good on me. Found this pair of shoes that I got so enamored at first sight and feel. It was soft and light with semi-hard sole and the fit was just perfect!
It was classy but pricey, after all, it was Pab Der, made in Italy! For my first born’s wedding, it would be a pleasure wearing it. I kiss my many pesos good-bye. Besides, I was thinking, Angie and Chavi were not really far behind and I could still have the shoes in tip-top shape during their own hanging,..I mean wedding!
And so Iñaki and Ay’s wedding took place and I was so proud of my shoes. After all, it was Pab Der, made in Italy!
When we got home after the wedding, I took it off, put a ball of socks inside the shoes to maintain its shape and placed the pair inside a plastic bag and kept it inside the closet. It will reappear again if ever their will be special occasions and I am forced to wear it.
There wasn’t until two years after. This time it was Angie’s turn to march down the aisle. Of course I have to look good and proud to be showing off again my nice shoes. After spit-shining it, I had it commissioned for the occasion. I was so comfortable wearing it and taking Angie to where the groom, Rodin, was.
When we got home after the wedding, I took it off and did the same ritual to it as I did after Iñaki’s wedding. I was ogling at it and appreciating the looks of it and the pleasure it gave me wearing it. After all, it was still Pab Der, made in Italy!
Once the shoes was kept inside the closet, I was wondering when the next special occasion would be before I could wear it again. The shoes still looked brand new. Its form and shape was still holding on beautifully.
Little did I know that four years after our only girl’s wedding, Paz and I will be surprised by the youngest of the three siblings, Chavi, that he, too, has decided to join what “God has put together, let no man put asunder” or something of that sort!
So, I said, well, why not, you may be the youngest but you are already old and I have a pair of still brand new looking shoes for the occasion. Or so I thought!
August 18th came and we were all excited. Iñaki and Angie, with their respective families, flew all the way from Manila to accompany us march Chavi off to marriage with Maisy and celebrate this grand occasion of seeing the youngest of them all flying out of the coop to start building his own.
And so my Pab Der shoes, made in Italy, made once again its promising appearance. It was still looking good despite developing molds here and there. I cleaned and spit-shined it once again, as I was preparing to wear it. What I have noticed though when I was shining it was that there was a chip on the side-sole portion of the left shoe and the chipped material was left inside the bag.
It never occurred to me that this small chip was the beginning of the end of my “dear” Pab Der shoes, made in Italy!
I only realized completely what was happening to my shoes when I arrived at the church, after driving from home. I got out of the car and the first thing I did was look at my shoes. I can’t believe what I was seeing! My shoe soles were simply falling apart! It was crumbling! It was self-destructing!
How could this happen to my Pab Der shoes, made in Italy?
It was something bizarre, yet laughable.
It was shocking, as it was funny.
In my own eyes I was seeing a comedy of horror at my own shoes and while I was wearing it.
Good that there were just very few invited guests. Nobody was at the back to notice it every time I have to knelt.
I left traces every where I went. From the church grounds to the red carpeted and elevated floor near the altar where we had our pictures taken. From the tiled second floor of the Crua Thai restaurant, where we were toasting the newly wed couple, to my mothers house.
I just could not explain how much pulverized, grayish debris I took out from the mat of my car as a result of rubbing the sole of my shoes upon the clutch, brake and accelerator.
I got out of the house with my shoes still complete with heels and sole. I returned home feeling like I was wearing a boxer’s fighting shoes, only that mine was half-cut and without lace.
It was good while it lasted and, sad to say, it made its last appearance.
That’s the story of my Pab Der shoes, made in Italy, after six years.
What a mess!
hahahahahahahahaha!!! that was the funniest thing to happen that day! 🙂 that will be one for the books.. a story to be recounted over and over and, of course, laughed about!Good bye Pab Der… I hope the brown Florsheim will not meet the same fate!
I’ve learned my lesson. The brown Florsheim as well as the other pair of “expensive kuno” nga zapatos are alternating in visiting Ayala and SM malls every time occasion warrants. Will have that Pab Der shoes, or what is left of it, mounted for display!
It has been a hectic day for Chavi before today.
Days before he has been completing his requirements for his travel to Zhuhai, China where he will be on schooling at the Shangrila Academy. He was also buying stuffs to complete his personal effects.
It was good that wife Maisy had this huge luggage which could accommodate all his things to take, including his brand new suit, for a month’s stay overseas. I feel sorry for Maisy for staying behind when they got married only very recently. But, there is one infamous word popularized by my brother Eton that explains it all and the word is, “Maná.” (A contraction of the word, humana). Finished! Consummatum est!
In between Chavi had also to collect his ration of a sack of rice and bring it home. Thanks, Chavi, you know this will go a long way and many more mouths will get to partake this rice.
As you all know, we already sold the Nissan Sentra that Chavi had. It was a turned-over car from Iñaki when he got a new replacement. That car was good while it lasted with us. It served us well, especially Chavi, though it gave him a big scar on his forehead that will forever remind him of the day he thought he was already in bed. Don’t really miss the car as much as I felt the loss then of our volksvagen or the Renault we had when the kids were small. The pain. The anguish. It invoked bad memories.
But, you never count out my old, reliable, a rotting already Mazda as a substitute. This is our sole “beast of burden” now until Iñaki, again, sends us his Honda which is due for replacement anytime soon. We cannot thank Iñaki enough.
I seem to have navigated away from my intended topic already.
What am just letting everybody know is that Chavi left for China, via Manila and Hongkong today.
Finally he has flown and at the expense of Shangrila.
Maisy, temporarily, does not have a husband and me and Paz will miss not having our “on-call” assistant.
Bon voyage, Chavi!
Today, 9/11, mark my brother Angel’s 44th death anniversary. Had he lived he would have been 73 years old.
I wonder how he would have looked like. I don’t know if his hair would have been whiter as Eton’s or Rudy’s. One thing am sure is that he will still be sporting a crew-cut haircut. He had this kind of hair cut only after he joined the Air Force. I remember he used to have a long hair when he was studying in Cebu and we were kids in Baybay. One time he changed it, aping what came as a vogue in those days. We were all laughing when, one time, he came home with long hair on both sides of his head and short, flat at the top. I remember I had that same haircut too growing up in my teens but it was papa’s coño, expressed everytime he sees my head that made me go back eventually to the barber to have it re-done.
44 years have gone by and I still remember vividly every single moment I was with him or he was with us. From the time he was forcibly throwing us farther into the sea so we would learn how to swim, to the time when we both sat together at the pier in Baybay drinking tuba before getting aboard the boat that would take us to Cebu. From the time he went looking for me around Baybay with a bike only to find me at a neighbor’s house (ma thought I run away from home because pa punched me and so she made Angel look for me) to the somber moments we had at the stairs of our house in Sudlon talking about my leaving for Manila to pursue my studies when he was being transferred to Cebu. This was the last time we were together.
My only consolation in all these years is that I am able still dream about Angel. I always dream of him as he was, young, stocky, tough and handsome – the way I last talked to him.
Amazing that in your dreams, you don’t get to be old too!
It has been three days now that Iñaki, Klaus and Maive, sans wife Ay, have arrived in Cebu to spend around two weeks of vacation with us.
The kids are growing fast and it is always a welcome riot to have them with us.
Every time they come you see changes in them- changes in their looks, their heights, their demeanor, the degree of mischievousness they have attained, their antics, their vocabulary, etc., all these to ones amazement and pleasure.
Klaus is sporting a crew cut that enhances more prominently his eyebrows, not to mention his good looks. Maive on the other hand is the spitting image, the “vivo retrato” of her naughty father!
It is always music to any grandparent’s ears when you hear grandchildren calling your pet name the way only they can say. You always feel triumphant when you can fool them, to make them hug you and give you a kiss! Hahaha! Poor Maive!
Everyone is looking forward, however, to Chavi’s arrival on Sunday from China. While we miss his absence physically, what softens up the feeling is the fact that we see him on-line in webcam. It looks like he is enjoying and doing well at the Shang-rila academy, and having great pleasure at seeing part of giant China.
Watch out, Maisy!
After two weeks of “children anarchy” we are again left to ourselves with a deafening silence to boot.
Iñaki and his two “rebels” left for Manila late afternoon yesterday. Klaus was a little bit subdued in the car, while baby Maive was counting up to 10 and singing medley kid songs that she alone could understand.
When the swing at the backyard is still and nobody starts shouting expletives and warnings like, “cuidao!, sucio ese!, despacio!, te va a mordir el perro!,” it could only mean the kids are gone and Gardog can take his rest.
When things on the table remains untouched and the floor is free of litter, then you are finally sure the two “activists” are no longer in the house.
Realization finally sets in when the following day you don’t hear anybody prodding Klaus to finish up his breakfast and no more sounds of Barney can be heard entertaining baby Maive.
Anyway, we are just very thankful that when the flood struck Manila and suburbs, Klaus and Maive were with us. We were all worried and feeling bad for Ay who was left wading in breast-depth flood waters saving what she could. Her car got flooded.
It could have been worse had the kids been there. It was consolation enough however, that Iñaki’s car didn’t suffer the same fate as Ay’s.
Thankfully, Angie and Amaya, their car and their home were in safer grounds.
Our thoughts and prayers continue for those who suffered the worst. Only by having strong faith in God can we overcome such difficulties in life.
Happy to say that my own branch of the family tree is getting bigger! No, not by leaps and bounds, but slowly, as in, “finally another one!” Or, “wow, got you this time!” Or, “dah, igo ka lagi!”
Chavi and Maisy are expecting the stork sometime in March. Salamat Ginoo nga dili Febrero! This is a family secret we all share.
Very recently also, Angie calmly informed us that she is on the family way! Looks like that trip to Thailand made wonders for Rodin! Could just imagine Amaya’s reaction once she sees the bulge on her ma’s stomach and feels the movements later!
Looks like that is it for Iñaki and Ay. With the impish Klaus and bubbly baby Maive all over, who needs another one?
At any rate, whatever God wills, we welcome it. It is a blessing to have what we have and grateful for whoever and whatever the number that comes along.
Thank you, LORD!
Nothing much is happening within the family circle. Every member is working hard, “como Dios manda,” and every one is doing well. All are stable, hoping the best is still to come.
Iñaki and Ay are so caught up with corporate work that they come home late at night already. But for as long as concern for work and children are balanced or slightly favoring a little the welfare of the kids, then trying to build up financially for the family’s future is only understandable.
Klaus will be enrolling in Grade 1 proper next school year. How time flies! He deserves a good school for the kind of head he has got. Hope by then he shall have learned to eat his breakfast faster.
Maive must have increased her vocabulary already and using it for survival against Klaus asserting herself. One time I turned on my overhead bed radio and was jolted with the very loud music that I automatically screamed Maive’s name as she was the last one who touched it. I was laughing after knowing that I was just simply missing her antics.
Angie and Rodin are equally busy with their lives too. Good that Rodin has his office practically where he lives and can see Amaya most of the time.
Angie has to play ‘hide-and-seek’ with Amaya sometimes just so she could finally wrap up her PhD. She is immersed in her practicum with cancer afflicted children conducting pain therapy to them so it will easier for them to cope with the disease in their body. It could be stressing and distressing to be facing sickly kids especially when you know that it is the degree of gravity of their illness that will determine whether you will see them again the following meeting or not.
Amaya seems to be doing pretty good, showing off her ability to use the right words for the right thought and at the right time and has discovered already the sense of reasoning. It looks like she can carry on now having a conversation. Let us see who gets outwitted between the two bright heads.
Every now and then we see Chavi and Maisy visiting us. Little by little they are filling up their apartment with things. Maisy is a little heavy now with what she is carrying and knowing that it is a girl, both are busy looking/searching in the internet for an appropriate name.
Looks like a noisy future stored for us in 2010. The expression, ‘the more the merrier’ is a welcomed one.
Bring them on!
Yesterday, November 6, 2009 was a momentous day for my Quierosaber blog site and I would like to share with you why.
When I started the Quierosaber blog site a year ago it was simply for the purpose of keeping my sanity intact.
I know my limitations as a writer but being able to express freely about anything in a genre of publication that allows people all over the world to access is a panacea to me.
Venting my varied moods in writing has given me satisfaction regardless of what comments I may get from the readers. Like I said in the outset, mine was not to create an argument. Mine was simply to articulate the best way I can on subjects I choose to write whether or not it is agreeable to the readers.
I have written over 300 blogs on wide-ranging topics generating clicks and comments, not to mention spams, from a global readership and this has given me the impetus to keep on posting knowing that there are people out there who have become followers of Quierosaber. Not so many, mind you, but enough to get me motivated.
But yesterday was unlike any other day.
Yesterday became D-day for me and Quierosaber blog site.
Yesterday WordPress adjudged my blog, “Bears losing fur in Germany zoo,” as the Number 1 blog of the day! There were 1,777 viewers who clicked and read this particular post! Overall number of clicks for the day totaled 1,993.
This is the beauty of it. People get to know about Quierosaber and they are starting to read the rest of the articles I have posted in the past.
But at the same time, what it is, is a big challenge to me.
It means I don’t have to let them down.
It means that I have to prove that WordPress’ declaration yesterday of my post as the blog of the day was not a fluke.
What it simply means is that interesting articles make for a good reading.
yipee!!! as we say to young kids, good job! ;D write on, pap!
Gracias, hija.
Bring out the champagne, and pop the cork, time to celebrate! Cheers to our writer! Hip Hip! Hooray!!! Proud of you pa! Carry on =D
Thanks Ay.
Congrats Pa! You’ve realized the first step of getting the readers to click on your article, this in itself is already an accomplishment! They will surely be curious of your other pieces of writing as well. So, aside from keeping your sanity, you are now faced with keeping the readers interested hehehehe….now the writing juices have to flow 🙂
Thanks King. I’ve learned that you can’t do it alone posting local and national news. You just have to mix it with what Angie calls ‘international flavor.’ The truth is that you just have to keep on ‘experimenting’ what makes for a good/interesting reading.
We are in that time of the year again when we start looking forward to who can make it for Christmas and New Year with us.
There is nothing we dread more than spending Christmas by our own lonely selves. It is not that we cannot live through it, but, hey, ever since Iñaki was born 35 years ago, there were always more than just Paz and I all the time.
Thankfully Chavi and Maisy are just a bridge away.
Glad to know that Angie and Amaya will be arriving in mid-December.
We are all eager to see the transformation of Amaya from the last time she was here until now that she has learned to use the power of speech.
We had been ‘talking’ to her and I could see her mind working far ahead, that it takes a “rapid talk” catching up with what her brains want her to say.
Until now we do not know when Iñaki and family are coming. We are excited to see what kind of conversation Klaus and Maive, who is also picking up lots of words now, will have with Amaya! Looks like am already hearing some cuss words!
By the way, we just learned that Klaus has passed his entrance exams today for Senior Kinder in an exclusive school. In fact, I thought that the exams were set for yesterday so that I was way ahead with my prayers already. The more prayers you ‘deposit,’ the more rewarding it is, perhaps!
Congratulations, Leif Nicholas! We are proud of you! Boy, what a long road you have ahead! Or am I just too old already?
We heard that Iñaki and Ay will also undergo interview by the school. Hope they will not let Klaus down! Don’t worry we’ll pray for you also!
The family was treated with a TV special early yesterday morning, Nov 29th.
ABS-CBN’s program ‘Salamat, Doc,’ aired every Sunday morning at 7:30, featured Angie and a colleague on the subject about pain management among kids, especially those suffering from acute or chronic pains and cancer patients.
Everybody was glued on their TV sets, including 96 years old paternal grandmother, Lola Vicing, who can’t stop praising Angie as “popolar na kaayo!”
Well, we were definitely excited and proud to see and hear how Ms. Angie and Dr. Kim handled articulately all the questions thrown alternately at them.
While Dr. Kim emphasized the medical procedure of handling pain in children, Ms. Angie, on the other hand, underlined the importance of assuaging pain by psychological therapies.
While we were happy to see that the program was very informative and that all went well, we could not help, however, but feel sad for the patients – the children, who are suffering the anguish and uncertainties of their young lives.
God bless them!
Hi, I’m the editor for filipinovoices.com, one of the leading political blogs in The Philippines. I have been reading your blog for quite some time now.
I would like to ask if you would like to contribute and become a regular writer for us.
please email me nick@tingog.com, I can discuss with you the specific details.
Thanks for your interest in my posts, Nick. Sent you an email already.
Angie and Amaya are arriving today.
Been waiting for this especially that the little girl has found the marvels of communication.
Will be asking for your indulgence if you don’t see new posts to read.
This does not happen all the time.
Also what will be limiting me from writing are the things to do – especially food to prepare and errands one has to make.
This is the time of the year when mind wanders away from the computer.
Having your love ones around during the holidays is more fun – that’s for sure.
We are back to ourselves again. Like anything else, holidays has also its beginning and end.
We enjoyed very much Angie and Amaya’s stay with us.
I don’t recall the siblings Iñaki, Angie and Chavi being “adorable” yappers or babblers or tattletales growing up, but this girl Amaya just won’t stop talking as soon as she wakes up in the morning. Her voice is like a bee buzzing early in the morning! But what a welcome sound!
At 2 years old, Amaya could carry very well a conversation with grown ups. She always has a ready answer for your questions and her own questions to you are open-ended ones.
Funny thing is that she is so smart she knows when you are making fun of her and she answers you in kind.
Angie and Amaya left for Manila yesterday and the house is not the same.
After taking them to the airport I came back home and I felt like I was getting into the wrong house. Nobody was interrogating me: “Anong gawa mo, papooch? Saan ka galing, papooch?
Here is one story I have to tell you though. I chanced upon her one early evening with her Ate Tang about to put her pajama on. While the Yaya was preparing what Amaya was going to wear, I said, “cover that ‘thing’, I don’t want to look at it.” You know, with an elfish look on her face, she looks at me and says, “ sabi moning, hello pappoch!” (Moning is the word she uses for that “thing”). O, man, what a fertile imagination this baby has! I just got out of the room with a loud guffaw, unbelieving what I have heard!
We will surely and sorely be missing Amaya’s antics.
How I wish Iñaki and Ay’s kids, Klaus and Maive, were with us during the holidays. We missed them too.
But Paz and I sure relish with eager anticipation the fact that December 2010, God willing, there will be two more babies celebrating Christmas with us!
Chavi and Maisy are expecting their first born pretty soon in January, a girl, and Rodin and Angie, are awaiting their second in May!
I can only ask God for a safe delivery and thank Him for these additional blessings.
Well, what do you know?
Towards noon yesterday, Jan. 26th, baby Maitina, the much awaited first born of Chavi and Maisy, finally made her first appearance with a shout and by her voice made known, to all and sundry, her existence!
It took quite a long time for Maisy to deliver, checking in at around 5:00 p.m., on the 25th and laboring until the following day.
What was amazing though, but not quite a surprise, was Maisy’s determination to deliver the baby naturally. And she did it! Wow!
For a while I thought she would opt to be cut up like the rest of the ‘womenfolk’ in our family, starting from Mommy Pie, but perseverance prevailed at the end.
Who does baby Maitina look like? Let’s put it this way. It’s still too early to tell, but she is very fair and has a beautiful soft, silky brown hair on her head. Because of the family’s prominent noses, well poor Maitina could not be denied of having the same ‘trademark.’ If anything, it’s the x-factor that will define her beauty, just like those before her.
We joyfully welcome baby Maitina as our fourth grand child, after Klaus, Amaya and Maive.
We have now one boy and three girls…..and counting!
We thank God for the blessings!
Cheers and congratulations to Chavi and Maisy!
In two days time my brother, Oger, a.k.a. Rudy, will be arriving from the US. He is a retired anesthesiologist from Jacksonville, Florida and every year, about this time, he comes home.
It is always a happy homecoming for him, eagerly anticipated by all immediate relatives, especially my 95-going-96-year old mother. We always innervate and egg her on to live longer each day until Rudy arrives. She always has a good time with her favorite son around.
The house will be full again with Oger’s presence. There will be noise, laughter and abundance of food.
It will be smoke and drinks of beer every afternoon again and fried dried small “pusit” or tiny “bolinao” for “pulotan.”
Together with another elder brother, Eton, we are all senior citizens now. We spend the afternoons together, bonding for whatever time there is left for us to stay together.
We realize now that our sunset years will no longer be as long as the sunrise years we all had had, individually, and with our own respective family.
Welcome home, Oger!
I have not been blogging lately if you will notice.
My time these days belong to my son Iñaki and kids, Klaus and Maive, who seldom comes to Cebu for a visit. They are giving ‘spice’ to our, otherwise, quiet uneventful lives.
Not that Chavi, Maisy and baby Maitina is not making our lives exciting, but the latest addition is still so small to make remarkable difference. We still have to wait and see what enjoyable antics she has stored for us. We always look forward seeing them at their place in Mactan every time it is Chavi’s day-off.
The more that I won’t be having time to blog when Angie and Amaya arrive toward the end of this week.
It is going to be a full house, not counting that my brother Oger is still around and needs to be accompanied every now and then.
It’s not always like this for us. In fact this seldom happens that we are planning to have a family picture taken for posterity, while everybody is here.
Meanwhile, I ask my reader’s indulgence while inviting them to feel the feeling of happiness that we shall be experiencing when all are here.
Can’t simply be oblivious to what is going on around me. They came for us and they deserve our attention.
Thanks for your understanding.
We are back to ourselves now – in peace and quiet again.
First it was Iñaki and family that left for Manila, then Angie and Amaya followed suit.
We will probably see them again when Angie gives birth sometime in May. It will be us flying over.
My brother, Oger, also left for the US a few days ago after spending three weeks with our 96-year old mother. One has just to make sure that both their hearing aides are functioning or there will be shouting matches!
Oger says he was going to light up a candle at the image of “la virgin de la leche y buen parto” for Angie’s safe delivery.
There is a little noise every now and then in the house when Chavi and Maisy visits us with their baby Maitina. The latter is growing fast.
Let me greet once again everybody – family, relatives, friends, blog followers and even enemies – a joyous Easter!
Easter is the day of rejoicing that follows the sorrow of Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
For most Christians, Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It bears witness to God’s enduring promise of eternal life.
But, above all Easter is a message which proclaims the triumph of love over hate and of life over death.
This year, being an election year, it is my ardent wish that the significance of Easter will also touch every Filipino’s heart in ensuring that good men will triumph over the wicked and the honorable over the unworthy, so that we, as people, no longer be tormented by good-for-nothing egoistic leaders who merely stands as symbols of greed, chaos, despair and hopelessness.
Happy Easter!
After successfully defending her dissertation proposal, Angie is now declaring herself an authentic and genuine Ph D candidate!
We would like to congratulate Angie for this remarkable achievement. After years of hard work and sacrifice, the future now looks brighter and more promising for Angie.
In the same way that this is a big relief for Angie, studying and working through it even in between pregnancy and delivery, it is likewise comforting for us knowing that everyone is now free from stress.
Well, not quite really, yet. One more and last visit by the stork is coming up!
There is one more hurdle that the Ph D candidate has to make in her personal and married life. This could be the icing on the cake!
Angie is now heavy with a baby and is set to deliver by CS on May 12th.
We are all looking forward to D-day and inviting all and sundry to join us in our prayers for a safe and successful delivery.
2010, no doubt, is Angie’s year. It is putting a definitive period to her student’s days that until now boggles Chavi’s mind as to why she loves studying so much.
Not too many people can prize themselves with a baby for finishing the highest academic degree a university can bestow upon you.
Te deseamos un buen parto y felicidades!
Yesterday, April 24, 2010, marked a milestone in Maitina’s (Chavi and Maisy’s first born) life. It was the day she was baptized and formally ushered in and formally admitted into the community of Christians.
It was done at San Roque parish in Subang-daku, Mandaue – the same church where her parents and grandparents got married and where Iñaki, Angie and Chavi got baptized too.
Maitina, with her usual frown, was probably wondering where she was and what was happening to her being transported to an unfamiliar place with so many people and faces trying to call her attention.
Not only that. She was made to wear an all white dress with still a matching cap inside a cubicle with an asymmetrical and unusual, yet, beautiful looking bamboo cross.
Saw her staring and smiling at the flickering fire from a big candle as it amused her.
She probably was curious what the bald man in a robe was talking about and later pouring water on her head and making sign of the cross on her forehead.
Is he bathing me or what? I still have my clothes on!
And then it happened. There was a lot of clapping and she felt being passed on from one person or group to another and a lot of picture taking happening. Those flash bulbs were making her cross-eyed.
But in all the excitement Maitina has remained composed and very cooperative. The crowd never annoyed her.
It was the April heat that made her whimper as we all proceeded to Patio Isabel at Banilad for a celebration.
Cheers!
Paz left early morning today, May 11, for Manila to give Angie peace of mind about Amaya as she is going to check in at Manila Doctors Hospital for her scheduled CS delivery tomorrow.
We are anxious but at the same time happy and thankful for this new addition in the family.
This will be Angie’s second baby and understandably the last. Am sure little angel Bianca will be happy at the arrival of Mayumi and will be watching over and will always be with her and Amaya all through out their lives.
With Mayumi’s arrival, she will be fifth of our grandchildren and the youngest by far.
Am I still counting?
Well, let’s put it this way. Looks like Iñaki and Ay have come to a decision to stop at two – Klaus and Maive – both beautiful kids. Wise decision when you start talking about safety of mother and child the next time around.
That leaves Chavi and Maisy to do the humping and the bumping! Would surmise that there will be one more in the future and that is it. Lessons from what the older siblings have experience or are experiencing are all thought provoking, not counting times are hard.
Will be leaving Friday for Manila to join Paz. By then Angie and her new baby will be home.
Can’t wait to see them.
I won’t be blogging for a few days.
Will be leaving for Manila to meet the new addition to the family – a little baby girl named Mayumi. She is Angie’s second child, delivered by CS on May 12th.
Mayumi is the youngest addition after Klaus, Amaya, Maive, and Maitina.
Will be back Sunday and will resume writing Monday.
Have written a couple of post-election articles that should interest you all.
Today is Amaya’s birthday. She is 3 years old now.
Can’t talk about Amaya without mentioning about twin sister Bianca who has been gone 3 years now too.
This is the reality that has to be accepted but never to be forgotten.
We are happy and consoled, just the same, by the fact that we may have lost Bianca, but we have gained an angel looking over her sister, her cousins and their respective families.
Amaya has developed into a very intelligent little girl who loves to talk and likes questioning people no end until the answer satisfies her.
She is learning a lot at home with Angie being an exceptionally good teacher for kids.
Hope when she finally goes to school that she won’t get bored as she has played and learned them all at home already.
The only problem now is that Amaya doesn’t seem too comfortable with baby Mayumi around.
She sees Mayumi as competing for the attention that has all been hers until the baby came along.
Am sure mama Angie has still some tricks under her sleeve to appease ruffled feelings.
Happy birthday, Amaya!
Angie arriving today with Amaya and Mayumi.
We had all been looking forward for them to spend some time with us before Angie starts working again.
This will be Mayumi’s first trip outside of Manila.
Amaya has been feeling insecure since her baby sister’s arrival. Understandably, because the attention was always hers until Mayumi came along. Now that Angie’s attention is divided, perhaps Amaya is wondering if Mayumi’s presence and existence is a good thing. Am just trying to read the child’s mind. Am sure, in due time, she will comprehend and all be well.
Amaya is getting smarter by the day and at three is already very articulate and expressive. Even her doctor wants her intelligence tested.
What we are asking ourselves now is whether or not Mayumi will be another Amaya – curious, imaginative and philosophical?
Coming from the same mold, why not?
Noisy and entertaining duo they will be, unless the younger one comes out opposite.
Today ended the visit of Angie, Amaya and baby Mayumi with us. At 12 o’clock noon they left for Manila.
It was two weeks of fun and noise and with the house in disarray, but not without apprehensions that the kids might go down with fever after contracting colds. Good that it didn’t come to that.
While Angie and family were here , we receive good news that Klaus, Iñaki’s son, was considered for an LBC billboard advertisement. Photo shots have been done already. We are all excited and looking forward to how it will come out.
Anyway, there is nothing but silence in the house now. With Amaya gone, there is no more question and answer segment that normally take place during her waking hours.
There is no one to bargain hard with me anymore that it’s her turn to see her favorite Dora every time I turn on my evening TV news program.
We are back to ourselves – Paz and I.
We miss everybody.
On February 17, 2009 I wrote a blog about my mother. I titled it “My dotage mother.”
She was 95 years old going 96, as her birthday falls on November 10th. I wrote about her physical and mental health, the mother that I knew her to be and the inescapable death that we all have to face one day.
What a difference a year can make to ones life, especially to the sickly and the dotage.
The question now that we are all confronted with is: Can mother make it to her 97th birthday?
The fear that we all had that one day she might fall down finally happened. It eased up a little our worry knowing that she fall down while trying to stand up from a chair and not from a standing or walking position where the injury could have been worse or fatal from the impact.
Still it left her unable to walk with her left pelvic joint injured and has to be confined on a wheelchair. With severe scoliosis it was adding more pain to her already debilitated body.
Not being able to walk and having her movements restricted has taken a toll on her. With her predicament she finds it hard to have a good rest and a good night sleep.
She is getting weaker by the day. Could we be seeing the beginning of the end for ma?
We feel we are. We feel ma slipping away from our grasp. We see ma calmly resigned, finally accepting reality
Please help us pray that God will be kind to her and make her life, whatever is left of it, easier, as our dear mother prepares herself to meet HIM.
This is so sad. Klaus and Maive keep Lola Vicing in their prayers every night.
His will be done. Love you pa
Thanks, Ay. Love you all.
Just got back from Manila for our granddaughter Cara Mayumi’s baptism on August 14th at Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish in Philam homes, Quezon City.
Was good to see Iñaki and Angie and there respective families again! Makes one wonder what is in the passage of time that changes so fast the physical and mental growth of children? Or are they just fast catching up and getting old? Perhaps, just nature’s way of saying that what we we know now, they will know better when their time comes.
This was Maitina’s (Chavi and Maisy’s first born) first trip to Manila and enjoyed mumbling and seeing her cousins. Must have surprised her, in her own little world, why Amaya and Maive has to come to shouting matches and crying when there were books and toys all over for them to read and play with? Why would they have to like the same thing at the same time?
It was fun seeing the kids! Klaus loves the big school and he is excelling!
The only problem I had with this trip was my stomach. Looks like I have to slow down or stop all together my intake of vinegar and for a certain extent, alcohol.
Having a bad case of hyper-acidity when there is good food is never that funny.
Angie, Amaya, and Mayumi came to Cebu recently to visit their ailing Lola, my mother.
Iñaki and Klaus followed about a week after.
By the looks of it, it could be their last time to see their Lola alive. It was saying a tearful good bye for good before flying back to Manila yesterday.
Angie celebrated her birthday on August 25th, but it was a subdued one in deference to mother’s condition.
In the U.S., Angie’s cousin, Paul, a son of my brother, also celebrated his birthday on August 25th.
What is significant about August 25 is that it is the date my father died, 18 years ago.
Mother is still hanging in there, but fast slipping away. It could come any time, so much so that every time the phone rings, one crosses the fingers.
Mother would be 97 years old in November 10 – if she makes it. November, however, looks too far and seems too long for where and how she is right now.
Paul,s father, a retired doctor from Jacksonville, Florida is tending for our mother.
Sometimes, among us brothers, mother’s final day becomes a guessing game. It is our way of anesthetizing our pains of seeing her suffering, of easing tension and stress over how helpless one can be.
We thought it was going to be another gloomy August 25th, but that came to pass. Would it be September 11th, our older brother’s death anniversary?
Deep inside us, we know that even September is too long already. We are praying it will be sooner if only mother won’t have to suffer any longer.
But then it is all God’s choosing. His will be done.
Took me a long time to blog anything.
Took me a long time to overcome grief.
Just felt numbed all these times.
The guessing game is over.
Mother finally passed away on August 31st at 5:30 in the afternoon.
It was God’s chosen time.
It was how we all wanted it to be and the Almighty granted our wishes.
It was during my watch.
I put on her hearing aid when I was alone with her hoping she could hear me.
I applied oil from the Holy Land, which Angie gave me, on ma’s forehead and chest.
It was fate that I brought it with me that afternoon.
I told ma I love her, that we all love her.
I begged her to go and not to worry about anything any more.
She has suffered long enough and we could no longer bear to see her agonize more in pain.
I asked all the angels, the saints and the souls in purgatory to intercede for her peaceful passing.
I prayed to God to forgive ma and take her into His bosom already for a lasting rest.
In between I was singing gently the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy.
Then my brother entered the room and we both saw life slowly slipping away.
We called the rest of the siblings and they all became witnesses of ma gradually leaving us.
Amidst our grief we bid her farewell.
I removed ma’s hearing aid, kissed her for the last time and closed her eyes as she breathe her last.
😥 just breaks my heart knowing she won’t be waiting for me, seated on her chair, in her home, when i come to visit..
how good God was to allow the people who loved lola the most, her own children, to be with her, holding her hand as she went on her journey. must have been the goodbye lola wanted, as well.. how blessed that she didn’t go in pain but in peace..
96 years seems a long lifetime..yet for us left behind, those 96 years were not enough..
still u must know, pa, how lucky and happy lola must have felt to have most of her children attending to her, making sure she received the best care possible, to have u all show her love and appreciation til the very end..not all mothers will know that joy. she was right, “he tenido buenos hijos”
my love to u as we all face our grief and learn to live our lives without lola
Gracias, hija. For us who knew what she went through raising 8 of her 10 children and still being the matriarch that she was until the age of 96, left us all in awe. It was pure blessing that she lived this long to see his children age along with her and for the grandchildren to witness what she was as a person and a mother to her children.
(This is a letter Angie sent us from Hong Kong where she has been for five days now attending a play therapy seminar. This was addressed to Rodin, her mother and myself. I felt it was appropriate to published it here.)
I thought I’d just send you all the same email since its the same story 🙂
I remember after I graduated from college, i searched the net for play therapy and how i could train for it. it was much too expensive that i knew i would never be able to do it w/out financial aid..i searched for grants and the like to no avail. the organization and school i wrote to would send me brochures the next two years but when they probably realized that they i wouldnt do it, they stopped. every now and then i’d try to see what’s available in our region but it would always just be in the west.. the next best thing to do was get into a graduate course that would teach me how to deal w/ kids the best way which was why i packed my bags and went to UP and lived a very difficult – emotionally (first time away frm family & cebu ) and financially – first year.. from holes in shoes and pants to getting sick and all that. i had to go through that. it is with no regrets at all because both the education and experiences i gained as a person and as a teacher have taught me soooo much. i got into counseling in phd as that was the course that i thought would let me learn how to help children with emotional and behavioral needs in a psychotherapeutic manner. i searched for play thearpy subjs just in case but wala.i learned how to use play as a tool in therapy thru reading and experience.
when i saw this opportunity in HK, i knew by hook or by crook i had to go. i knew the names of the presenters as they are big names in the play therapy world and i knew that what id learn here would be invaluable. i was so worried as i havent had income in over a year and didnt want to deplete our savings.. i know it worries rodin but i have to thank u, dan, for being so supportive even if it has caused quite a dent in the bank account…u didnt stop me, not for a second and encouraged me to pursue it and i am very very grateful.
now that im here, i realize that God really does answer prayers..in HIS own time.. i have waited for this for 15 years and now its here…with patience, hard work and HIS guidance, i will get what ive wanted for a long time.. and i see how the pieces of the puzzle just fit so perfectly! the training i had as an early childhood educator plays a huge role in becoming a good play therapist. as i was watching the presenter do a demo and have “sessions” w/ patients, its like the wway i talk and interact with kids in the classroom. i talked to her about it over lunch and she agreed.. there are of course other issues and techniques but how amazing it is that everything ive done in the past now fit and gel into a whole!
i am looking forward to the next days and hope that i can practice eventually in manila. i have to finish my dissertation by april so that i can have DR. attached to my name and be more credible – and saleable! 🙂
there will be a 10 day course that will enable me to complete the certificate course in March2011 and i am praying that HE will bless us and allow this to happen. i will seriously have to start earning so rodin doesnt grow more white hair and worry more! hehe pa, ul have to be my bank and il have to take it a loan payable in 1year ha! 🙂 that would be around 150k… very big…
Anyhow, i just wanted to share this with you so u know how much this means to me.. it will also give me more confidence as a private practitioner… i would never be able to do this without the three of u..ur support, encouragement and love and i just wanted to say thank u very much… mader, without you there, i’d probably have anxiety attacks or i’d not even be here as i couldnt bear to leave the two little ones just like that.. it means so much to me that u are there with them and rodin gets to do his work w/o worryiing about the children too.
i have been praying for a while now for HIM to show me which path to take.. hopefully sooner than later everything will be clearer.
muchas gracias to the three of u and i love u three very much..
To Angie,
It is really wonderful and awesome that you are where you are now. It may have taken some time relative to your plans…but just right based on the GRAND plan for your life….the family support specially from Rodin is something to be really thankful for. Soon you will have your much sought after degree and a title that will be a testimony of long hours, hard work, pure grit, and solid determination you put in over the years. The kids, Ay, and I will always be there to support you….and when the time comes when we call you Doctor…pwede ikaw na lang mo-tuli kang Klaus?
Hahaha! Hay, que loco! You made my day, King!
muhilak na unta ko sa kalipay ug sa katouched.. di gyud gihapon madayon maskin unsaon! hahaha boang gyud!thank u, king.. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and for that i will never fail to give thanks 🙂
This is just to let all and sundry know that Klaus, Iñaki’s son, has modeled for LBC’s latest advertisement that is now shown all over the country, I suppose.
Can’t help being amused, even from afar, seeing it. Had to go out to the second Mactan bridge to find it myself.
The full view of the LBC ad can be seen on the left side, as one starts descending the bridge going to Mandaue City. It is in fact the first billboard that you will see from the left side.
Klaus did a good job being so natural in that photo. He blended so well and his acting was impeccable!
Hope this will be the beginning of many more similar opportunity that will show the boy’s talent and ensure his own better future.
Congratulations Klaus!
I don’t think I shall be writing more blogs like I used to especially going towards December.
There is and there will be too many activities in the house that I would rather do and participate than see myself sitting and writing blogs. There is more productivity done in the former than in the latter. Unless of course there is something so weird for people to know and some newsworthy items for commenting.
Also I have fallen well behind in my reading of good books and the National Geographic magazine and I want to keep up with it again. It would have been a different thing if I was earning something from writing.
What am simply saying is that I want more time for leisure now and I got to be moving. The latter is very important for my health and well being. With my rickety knees I can’t afford just sitting and living a sedentary life. As much as possible I want to delay the use of a cane.
Well, there is no denying what the reality is. Had I not been too abusive of my body, wearing and tearing it, during my younger days, I would have been still good for two sets of tennis doubles.
The way it is now there is no more nimbleness, no more agility. My carefree, impulsive, come-what- may attitude has taken its toll and took away even the “brakes” in my legs.
The problem with old age is that where you want the part of your body to soften up, it hardens, and where you want it hardened it softens up.
Well, not quite yet.
i’m covering my ears and eyes on those last two lines!
Mejor ya namas Gie que aun mis rodillas estan mal, me corazon y los otros mas importantes organos del cuerpo siguen bien, gracias a Dios. Estos son los que valen mas.
Papa, in English please, so this thread will be categorized as R-18 😀
What I told Angie, Ay, is that am still thankful to God that even if my knees are in bad shape, my heart and other important organs of my body are functioning well and these are what matter most.
We are all looking forward to Iñaki and family’s arrival early this evening.
We are just as excited as they are even if their stay will only be up to Sunday. They are coming early since they could not spend Christmas with us.
If there is one person that is heels over head about this trip to Cebu it is little Maive.
She has been telling all and sundry, and to those who cares to listen, that she was coming to Cebu.
This planned trip may have aroused and energized her that she talks about it even in her sleep. This is not to mention the badgering she has been doing to her parents about when Friday is going to be.
But I think what is firing her more is the anxiousness to meet and have fun with Henry and Chickaminute.
Henry and Chickaminute actually are a pair of kabir chickens that are pretty well tamed now. Am sure Maive will enjoy feeding and holding them.
Otherwise, they will go wild every time they see Maive.
Maive was disappointed to find out the plane we were riding was taking us back to Manila….she was expecting it to bring us to Playmaze 🙂
Ha!ha!ha!
We are expecting Angie and the kids today. We are excited to have them as they missed being with us on Christmas day. The same goes with Iñaki and family.
This is the first time we did not have Iñaki and Angie around the table to celebrate “noche buena.” Fortunately we had Chavi who was able to make it, with Maisy and Maitina.
Funny, this is the first time we didn’t put up a Christmas tree, knowing perhaps that there won’t be kids to enjoy it. Obviously, there were no gifts under the tree, but, they were all in our room.
This is the first time, too, that no pictures were taken for somebody unwrapping his or her gifts. It was practically a subdued Christmas, but, nevertheless, we were thankful for the variety of food we had on the table which all went well with the accompanying red wine.
But, you know what, something else was also missing when we were all seated around the table. I couldn’t believe we did not have what to me is a Christmas food symbol – the fruit cake! This has always been a mainstay on the table on the eve of Christmas, and for the first time, too, it wasn’t there. We went looking for it earlier, but, the stores didn’t have it anymore.
We are all excited having all of them to meet the new year 2011. Iñaki and family will be arriving towards the end of December.
With all of them here, am sure everything is going to be “normal” again.
There will be more noise, the house will be in an utter state of disorder and confusion, there will be cameras flashing, there will be belated unwrapping of gifts, especially by the kids, there will be more food and for sure we shall be having fruit cake again.
We have been blessed and for this we have to thank the Almighty.
Hope more dreams will be fulfilled in 2011 and we all shall continue living in good health with secured tomorrow, and have the chance to be able to help, in anyway we can, those in dire need of assistance.
A happy and promising New Year to all!
Except for losing mother in August, 2010 was practically a good year.
We had two additions in the family – Maitina and Mayumi – born four months apart, one in January and the other in May.
Klaus continues his reign as the lone prince with brainy Amaya and the soooo feminine Maive completing the captivating and enjoyable five.
Everybody is back in their own respective “coops” now.
Iñaki, Ay, and kids left Jan. 2 for Manila, thus, making the house less rowdy, but, losing part of the gaiety that we had been used to since they arrived for the holidays.
Angie and the kids left early this morning for Manila also and this totally made the house so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Not until Chavi and family come to visit that we will hear the sound of a child’s presence again.
With Paz at work, I entertain myself with feeding and talking and sometimes cursing Henry and Chicka minute, the two kabir fowls in the yard, for their indiscriminate droppings.
If being delightfully surprised and happy will set the tone for how it shall be for all of us in 2011, then I wouldn’t ask for anything more, except perhaps for continued blessing of good health. Am sure everyone in the family feels the same way.
I hope the effects of what happened to Mommy Pie on her birthday last Jan. 5 will rub on us all!
She was not only happy and bubbly about the surprised party commemorating her 65th birthday, but, she was equally delighted and on cloud nine seeing her close friends and former office mates wishing her well and reminiscing the past with them.
With the good food that Café Laguna served, it really made her day.
We were all happy to see her enjoy the day starting with a breakfast at Jollibee, where Amaya wanted to go, and lunch of Japanese food at SM, not to mentioned being an owner of a brand new sandals.
Would like to thank Iñaki, Angie and Chavi for thinking and working all these out confidentially and successfully. I just happened to be a willing accomplice. Special thanks to Angie for emceeing that night. T’was a good job.
Surprise, success, happiness!
Our wishes for 2011!
Before January ends, Chavi and Maisy’s first born, Maitina, will be celebrating a milestone. How time flies. Maitina will be one year old!
She is starting to say a few words now and has come to learn that her two legs are meant for walking.
But, I don’t know what is between us. She comes more often than the rest, but, until now she just stares at me and feel more comfortable if she doesn’t see me.
I don’t know if it is the growing lines on my face, my big nose, the white bristles on my face or the salt and pepper hair I carry on my head, but the thing is that I only find success in having high fives and low fives and aligning fingers with her.
Oh, how I wish I could carry her and talk to her!
Will see how 2011 will be.
Advance Happy Birthday, Maitina! Long way to go girl!
Today is my younger brother’s death anniversary.
Can’t hardly believe that Eduardo a.k.a. Gong has been gone for six years now.
Visited his grave today. He would have been 64 years old.
Pains me remembering how he died. It was just as well that God finally took him sooner.
His suffering was getting worst. It was bad enough seeing him suffer, but even more devastating holding him curled up in his bed, talking and wondering when the end would come.
I admire him for his fearlessness before an impending end to his life after a long, hard, painful struggle with kidney problem.
He saw it coming. It was not a battle lost. It was rather an acceptance of fate.
He wanted comfort, he was given peace.
Through death, God, in His goodness, granted him mercy and rest that he so much deserved.
It is consoling that Gong left behind a closely knitted family that are all doing so well.
the memory of the last time i saw tito gong pains me til now..im glad that i went home to say goodbye when he could still sense me there..
Angie is back in Hong Kong attending the sequel of that play therapy seminar she attended the first time in September 2010.
This means to say that mommy Pie is also back in Manila, as before, momentarily assuming guardianship of grandchildren Amaya and Mayumi while Angie is away.
What this means also is that am back being alone again living an ‘abnormal’ life without a wife.
I have eaten three meals already, all chicken. Paz prepared some food before she left and they are all frozen, Just have to heat it up. But……
No, am not complaining. In fact am happy the way things are going. Angie is moving on, equipping herself with the tools she will need for her career,
Paz is having a break from my ‘quirks’ and can spend time with Iñaki and family, as she is with Angie’s little girls.
Good that Chavi is still in Cebu. Had lunch with him and family today, Sunday. It was the third chicken meal I had.
It will be like this until Angie returns sometime next week. By then Chavi, Maisy, Maitina and I shall have joined Paz, Iñaki, Ay, Klaus, and Maive and be on our way to Baguio, if plans materializes. Rodin, Angie, Amaya and Mayumi will follow.
My only consolation right now is that I can still laugh despite the inconveniences because the bathroom is packed with joke books that gives me the pleasure of cracking up when I do my morning ritual and any other time when I feel like going.
Won’t be writing for the rest of the week.
Will be going to Manila tomorrow with Chavi and family and reunite with the rest of the my family there.
Angie will be arriving from Hong Kong tonight after over a week of putting me in diet living alone in my house.
This will be one of the few times we will be all together far from home.
Looking forward to it and the activities ahead.
Back to reality again after four days of exciting and enjoyable stay in Manila with my wife, children and grandchildren.
Back to reality again, when you are all alone at home, sans the ruckus in the house that either results into fight, crying or laughter among the little ones.
Back to reality again when you don’t fear of tripping over and doing a split because of toys scattered all over the place.
Back to reality again, when you don’t hear sound of animated shows coming out from the TV set.
Back to reality again when, at your heart’s content, you have the luxury of surfing TV channels that catches your fancy without anybody telling you that your time is up!
Most of all it is back to reality when in the midst of the peace and quiet you start thinking of the little ‘devils’ and miss them despite the ruckus they create, the danger of the scattered toys for your wobbly knees, the funny (noisy?) sounds of the cartoon shows and the nudging you get from them because it’s their time to watch TV.
For two weeks we were hosts to the gnomes of Project 6, Manila.
We will just hide them using the names Klaus and Maive!
They flew over to Cebu accompanied by their nanny only. Talking about gnome chutzpah!
Had to call all the saints in heaven, including their late Lola Vicing, for the little ones to have a safe and pleasant flight.
Gnome’s father Iñaki made an earlier flight to Cebu for the Petron dealer’s convention. Perhaps Iñaki booked his ticket a while back and bringing over the gnomes was not in the plan.
We went back to the airport a few hours later to meet the kids and they all came out of the terminal happy, excited and as if it was the most natural thing any 5 and 3-year old kid should be doing.
The next two weeks became once more a cornucopia of shouts, cries, laughter, baby TV channel sounds and internet games in the house.
Old toys kept inside a box were all out again on the floor and elsewhere. They don’t seem to outgrow the toys. Poor Elmo’s attire is now incomplete and whatever is added to his feature, the miserable looking toy shouts, “what now?”
Once more my regular TV news routine has been eschewed.
Was even surprised one early morning when we were having breakfast and listening to Bobby Nalzaro’s commentaries, when Maive exasperatedly approached the radio and tried turning it off. I asked, “what you doing?” and answered back, “maingay kasi.” She was right. How could we be listening when we were busy talking!
Apparently my radio was interfering to her listening pleasure while watching her morning baby channel shows. I was stunned, but, what really made me laugh was when she watched me suspiciously whether or not I was going to turn up the volume again!
Maive is something else! “Ay Dios ko,” she often says!
How time moves. Now they are back in Manila and we miss their company again.
Once more the house has fallen silent.
I find amusement in seeing Henry not leaving Chikaminute in peace. All he knows is mount the poor hen.
To date, the battered fowl has given me its 35th egg and counting!
Should have written this yesterday, but got caught doing something else. Sorry.
Yesterday, Mayumi, Angie’s youngest, celebrated a milestone, her 1st birthday! She is starting to walk now.
Angie said she enjoyed the day with sister Amaya and cousins Klaus and Maive. They all went to Trinoma for some fun rides.
Grand celebration has to wait until Mommy Pie arrives in Manila.
I can only hope and pray that Mayumi will always have good health as the years passes by and cherish every birthday that comes.
As Mayumi was celebrating the day, Willy and Kate got hatched under Chikaminute’s warm body!
I have now four Kabirs to take care of.
Every time I see an additional wrinkle on my face, despite the funny faces I make on myself to stretch the skin, feel an aching bone here and there, having a hard time getting up from bed in the morning, after sleeping fewer hours that comes too often now, I know am in the month of June again.
Well, very understandable. I always feel like am getting a year older every June. I can tell it looking at my whitish hair on my head and on my face. Thanks goodness I still can count what I have growing on my eyebrows.
How time flies! Once you were always the youngest. Now you seem to be always the oldest around.
You see yourself shrinking while you see in your children what you were then. Others ahead of you have already gone to the great beyond, even those that are sometimes younger, by the decree of God.
It is simply what we call aging and that defines what the cycle of life is all about.
Now you are there, soon you are gone. But, while am here and what remains of the cycle, I will make the most of it.
I am just very thankful of my family. I may not have all the money I want to have, but I have them and have made me realize long before that material things are not all there is to life.
The cycle is always sweeter completed knowing that love and mutual respect abounds.
I would like to thank God for His kindness, for bringing me this far in life.
Hope the journey continues longer.
Let the wrinkles find more places. Let the aching bones continue. Let the white hair replace the black.
I don’t really care.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!!!!- your project 6 fans club 😀
Today, Angie’s first born, Amaya, celebrates her 4th birthday. There was just a few hours difference between our birthdays.
I could still remember Angie’s difficult pregnancy four years ago.
Premature births are normally associated with difficult pregnancy and having twins made it all the more complicated.
That is how it was with Amaya and Bianca, a struggle inside their mother’s womb.
Amaya survived the ordeal. Bianca gave in and sacrificed her life so her baby sister may live.
We can say that Amaya is an angel’s gift to her parents.
Now, four years after, Amaya has metamorphosed from a delicate premie infant with life-saving tubes all over to a vibrant and babbling little girl.
Her developmental age has catch up with her chronological age long time ago and has, in many ways, surpassed it already.
Her intelligence – her knowledge, questions and reasoning – amazes everyone, and, yes, frustrating, when she outwits you. And she is only four!
Happy 4th birthday, Amaya. I am sure the angels in heaven are happy watching you, as they are celebrating the birthday of one of their own, too.
Pop happy birthday although what i’m going to share is more of a father’s day article. It talks of fathers that have gone ahead, the living ones and the relationship with their sons. Happy father’s day too!!!
Love, Iñaki
http://www.lanewallace.com/more-writing/their-fathers-sons/
Thanks, King. Very nice article and very true.
To all the fathers out there, including those ordained by the Church that sired children and there are plenty of them, Happy Father’s Day!
There wasn’t really much hype about this event when I was growing up. But, I love my father so much, despite the welts from his Hickok belt on my buttocks and the right straight I got from him one time for my mischief in high school, that when I came to Cebu for my college study and had little extra pocket money I bought him the ancient 45-record of “Oh my papa.”
Unlike today, there is an extensive publicity about Father’s Day. You hear it being announced in the air waves, see it on TV and read it on print medium.
Makes you wonder if you have been doing right in your performance as a father, as oppose to the performance of the more sought after and more popular counterpart – the mother!
Makes you wonder if the way you raised a child deserves some accolade in return.
The truth is that when fathering, you don’t really think about being rewarded for it.
You do it as an obligation making sure that they grow up the way you want them to be, with the ability, capability, capacity and knowledge you have in rearing a child, but not necessarily the way you were brought up.
Each one has his own unique way of bringing a child up.
I can see it in my children’s, who are themselves parents now in their own right.
I did it my way (forgive the pun which have killed many singing in the karaoke sing-along) and each of them has their own distinct, efficacious way.
But, it is not all flesh and blood.
Like in cooking, to produce good, palatable food, you have to mix in the necessary, right ingredients.
The children’s growth must also be seasoned with love, understanding, patience, care, discipline, independence, awareness, ambition, that will give them self-worth and confidence. For a good measure, you can throw in the Boys Scout oath.
Fatherhood only becomes fulfilling and deserving when you see your kids attain goals and achieve that which you haven’t through their own sweat and tears and their burning desire to become what they want to be in life.
A long way yet to go? Not really. Life is so short.
Soon you will be a consummate father.
Happy Father’s Day!
Except for Kate who was stealthily snatched by a stalking cat at the back yard, everything else humanly possible, both desired and willed, are getting realized.
On our part, we are, thankfully, aging well, accepting it as the way to go without much worrying at the funny face one has now even without trying to be funny.
We are happy and contented with how things are evolving with the working careers of Iñaki, Angie and Chavi and their respective spouses.
Iñaki has informed us about a possible shake-up and movement in San Miguel’s Petron which could see him being pulled out as Training Director and brought back to Sales with a managerial position. We are crossing our fingers and hopefully may materialize before the year ends. Petron’s acquisition by San Miguel is the best thing that has ever happened to Iñaki’s lifework.
After months of agonizing preparation and juggling of work and household chore schedules, Angie has finally completed formalizing the write-up and binding of the nearly 400 pages of her dissertation papers for her PhD in Psychology. Being apprised all the time of what she is doing (in answer to my usual text question: what you doing?), the news that all is done has not only been much welcomed, but it brought us also a satisfying amount of sigh and relief.
Like his older siblings, Chavi is also happy in what he does, having found his niche in the hotel business. Chavi’s demeanor is well suited where he is and I am sure Shangri-la will see his potential one day and will give him a break. I just sometimes wonder how Chavi does it. If I was in his place I would have not lasted even for a week.
I would like to take this opportunity in congratulating grandson Klaus for being a gold medalist in his Grade 1 class. It’s a must now adays for kids to know what competition is, how to be competitive and what excelling means without pushing them too hard.
In our days to be competitive was to be physical. If we get to be included in the honor list, it was a major bonus.
Can’t wait to see how granddaughters, Maive, Amaya, Mayumi and Maitina will perform. Having Ay, Rodin and Maisy as achievers , I have high hopes they will fare well too.
Anything you have had for over 15 years is not easy to part with, especially if it is something that has helped you and hasn’t given you at all much of a headache.
Comes a time, however, when reality far outweighs nostalgia and a decision has to be made no matter how much longer you want to have it in you possession.
This is what happened to my blue Mazda pick-up which I decided to sell. Age has caught up with the car and while it has served me well (and Chavi, too, for a while), its “sight and sounds” when running were tell tales signs that it has known far better days before and was no longer that “strong, durable and reliable.” Its frequent visit to the shop only worried me more. Maintenance was getting expensive and funds, wanting. It needed someone else to sustain it in good running condition rather than fall into the nostalgic folly of seeing it, at the end, crippled in front of your house. Thus, while there were still takers and some amount could still be salvaged out of it, it was sold.
This is the second car I sold that made me emotionally tearful.
The first one was the first car we had, a Renault 10, which suffered as much as I did, when I was working with SMC in the 70s, courtesy of the union people. This car followed me and family to Manila when I worked with Purefoods in Marikina. It has reached as far as the famous beach of the notorious Lino Bocalan in Cavite, where blue seal cigarettes were beached and smuggled in. It came back to Cebu with us when I asked for a transfer and got granted. It wasn’t running much when I found myself jobless for almost a year in the mid-80s. What made work harder to find was the aftermath of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. Before a year ended, however, and out of the blue, I received a call from an old acquaintance – a foreigner, whom I met when he visited Purefoods Cebu onetime, inviting me to his plant in Zamboanga, a tuna loining and canning factory, to see if I would love to worked there. Who wouldn’t, when I needed the job badly. Even if they were canning cockroaches I would have still joined them! The rest is history and so has been with my Renault, which I sold for a song to my mechanic, whose forte was repairing Renaults. I shed some tears after not seeing it anymore in the garage.
Two more cars were sold before the Mazda – a Volkswagen and a Nissan Sentra. I wasn’t so emotionally affected selling them. I knew Iñaki and Chavi loved the Volks so much, but I seldom drove it. Not because I had my Mazda then, but for one reason I always felt like I get sucked in under the big trucks when I drove it. Also, I felt like the roof is being spit-on by people from bigger vehicles when you are running beside them.
The Sentra was something else. As always I thank Iñaki for it, but at the end I didn’t want to be reminded of bad memories. Besides, Honda was coming. Thanks again King.
July 27, 2011 will be D-Day for Angie. It will be the culmination of her long, long years of study and the crowning glory of her much cherished dream as she defends her dissertation for a doctoral degree in psychology.
While her contemporaries have long left the portals of the school practicing their profession and reaping fully the fruits of their labor, Angie continued pursuing her dream, teaching pre-school and tutoring to earn money while balancing her time as a wife and a mother to two active girls.
Looking back now, it seems like it was only a few years ago that I accompanied Angie to Manila on board a Sulficio vessel, to start this new chapter of her life.
Amid the uncertainties, what prevailed was the courage and determination to make something of herself.
In between were joys and tears, ups and downs, peaks and valleys – some sorrows of unimaginable proportions.
We acknowledge Angie’s achievement brought about by her own effort, resolve and sacrifice. Ours was purely moral support and unceasing prayers for her success.
Like Iñaki and Chavi, we also stand proud for Angie, all for having gone through hard times and being able to sacrifice who they were for what they could become and be blessed with joy, pride and peace of mind.
Congratulations Doc!
P.S. On a different note, I would just like to announce that a new member has been accepted to the family circle. He is a four-legged canine called Wally. The vet described him as mini-pinscher mongrel. In effect he is a toy dog and he is only 2 months old. He has been receiving a lot of attention/affection as he is a lovable dog. But I don’t know how long this honeymoon will last with all the peeing and the pooping he does inside the house. Can’t seem to learn new tricks yet. Or maybe we just lack the fundamentals of training him toilet manners.
gracias pap 🙂
Sometimes I think we just need a tug on our senses.
What is normal today and the days past may no longer be tomorrow as Iñaki and family arrives in the morning from Manila.
Peace will be broken and chaos will prevail. We welcome it all and the two, not little ones anymore, who will be creating it – Klaus and Maive.
I could just imagine Wally getting crazy in the company of his new acquaintances. Hope their visit would be in time for Wally’s next appointment with the vet. Would be a good experience for them to see that baby dogs get immunized too.
Am sure I will be writing less, but what the heck, I don’t see them very often and they can have the computer.
August is a mixture of happy and sad events.
Hope Chavi don’t get to read this or else Iñaki and Ay’s visit, together with their kids, may no longer be a surprise for him as he celebrates his 32nd birthday. How time flies! Vivid memory I have of Chavi is when he goes to the neighbors house every morning, sits and waits for the late Remy to hand him a table banana. How he loves to eat bananas until now! Now he has a wife, Maisy, and a baby girl, Maitina, who has started walking, but hasn’t learned to come near me yet.
Come August 25 will be Doc Angie’s birthday too. She will be here with Amaya and Mayume a day after. Never mind her age. What is important is that she is finally done studying.
On the same day that Angie will be celebrating her birthday, we will also commemorate papa’s death anniversary. It is less hurting now with the passage of time, but missing him deeply, nonetheless.
What is still hurting and missed terribly is mama’s death, which we will be remembering on August 31st. It will be ma’s 1st death anniversary.
Indeed, mixed emotions in August.
We are back to what we have been used to – silence in the house.
Just like when Klaus and Maive left after spending some time with us in August, there was also emptiness that I felt when Amaya and Mayumi left yesterday.for Manila.
I think it is going to get harder and harder to see the little ones go especially when every time they come they grow bigger and smarter and can carry on very well a conversation. The joy of having them here, seeing and listening to their antics, is simply immeasurable.
I also think that I find it a little harder now, at my age, to adjust to being alone again once they suddenly depart and I can’t hear any kid’s voices anymore. I can’t even seem to look at the scattered toys left behind all over the place, much less gather them up for safekeeping until they come back again. Can’t help my eyes swelling with tears.
I can only wish all the grandchildren well and pray they be in God’s caring hands all the time.
On a different note, last September 11 marked my brother Angel’s 46th death anniversary. I continuously miss him. He was different from the rest. He has been with me in my thoughts and in my prayers, so much so that on the eve of his death anniversary I dreamed about him. He was the way I saw him last. He wanted to teach me something and I woke up.
It has been 46 years since I last saw him. Am sure it won’t take this long before I see him again — if ever. May he continue resting in peace.
You will notice probably that I have not been updating lately this page. It is just that there are so many things happening in the family that I can’t just seem to cope up with the individual detail of what is going on.
Suffice to say that Iñaki, Angie and Chavi are all busy with their jobs and looking after their children.
Life is not always bed of roses, as the cliché says. Up to a certain point, yes, and then it gets to be a bed of sand, of pebbles, and of rocks.
Life is what you make it.
For being one, it is much easier and no one to share the blame or point the finger at.
For being a couple, it gets difficult and there just should be no room for inflated ego.
But for being a couple with children, life can be a little complicated, depending on how much effort you are contributing to matters in the family and how extent the threshold of emotional pain and patience you have for one another.
An unknown author has written about life that I would like to share with my children and their spouses and those who come across this page. It is very instructional, to say the least, and very helpful, as we continue our journey in life.
Life is too short. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.
Laugh when you can, apologize when you should and let go of
what you can’t change. Love deeply and forgive quickly. Take
chances. Give everything and have no regrets. Life is too
short to be unhappy. You have to take the good with the bad.
Smile when you’re sad, love what you got, and always remember
what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. Learn from
your mistakes but never regret. People change, and things go
wrong but always remember – life goes on!
“Today is the Day..Don’t Wait for Tomorrow ” is the subject of SunnySmile4U’s blog. I woul like to share with you an excerpt from her article ….
“Regrets from our actions today, will not help when the opportunity is here now and we choose ignore it…to leave it for another day. It will be of no comfort to the ones we love when they are gone, and for you… you will be left with regrets; you will be left with the “ I SHOULD HAVES”:
… I should have done this with them; I should have told them how much I love them; I should have been there for them; I should have shown more affection and love towards them; I should have been more attentive, I should have been more affectionate, I should have been more forgiving etc. Do what your heart tells you to do. Do not expect anything back in return for you will have already gotten it back tenfold. You will have the comfort of knowing that, if one day… you are faced to live without them…. You will know that they left knowing they were loved… and you will have the peace of mind knowing they did. You will not have to live with regrets.
Remember “TODAY IS THE DAY”… not “ TOMORROW” as sometimes, tomorrow never comes!
In short this is just like saying that “It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.”
“papooch, we will go to cebu in christmas eve. papooch take a good time with wally. mommypie and papooch see you soon. i love you. take care.”
from amaya and mayumi
Hi Amaya and Mayumi,
Looking forward to having you all here. We are putting up the christmas tree and the lights earlier this year. Hugs from Mommypie, me and wally. 🙂
Rodin and Klaus will be celebrating their birthdays tomorrow. I don’t exactly know how old Rodin will be but judging from the number of hair on his head turning white, he is that old already. Don’t know if its the job, wife Angie or daughters Amaya and Mayumi making the color change fast but I’d rather mind my own business.
On the other hand, Klaus will be seven years old! WOW!, really getting to be a big boy now. Sent some things which we hope he will enjoy having.
Too bad we cannot be with any of them as each celebrate their natal day but having families of their own now am sure that they will make everything possible that the celebrant will feel honored and happy, befitting another milestone.
Happy Birthday Rodin and Klaus!! You will be in our thoughts and prayers and hope that you both will have a great day and be blessed with many, many more birthdays to come.
Our hugs and love for you both.
Last week was a trying, anxious one for the family. We were at needle’s end, especially for Paz and I. It was not so much that Paz was to be admitted to the hospital for a medical procedure, as it was knowing if what she went into will later tell us a bad news. This is what was eating us up.
Though the biopsy turned out to be favorable and relieving, just the same the medical procedure was upgraded to what is described as hysterectomy. It was just as well that this procedure was done as the insides didn’t look good and Paz was simply nourishing some growths that ought not to be there and could just be the source of more health problems in the future if the whole uterus is not removed.
Very thankful to Angie who came over to assist her mother while recuperating at the hospital and even when Paz got discharged already. Had I been left alone to tend to the patient, I would just have been scratching that which need not be scratched and accomplished nothing.
The day Paz was operated on was the feast of the Immaculate Concepcion. We took it as a good omen and we could never be more thankful for her intercession. We thank Rodin for his patience when left to care for Amaya and Mayumi. Amaya who is so mature for her age wouldn’t stop calling and telling her ma that they also needed a mother to care for them and not just be relegated to the “yayas.”. Made us so guilty, no end. Thank goodness Mayumi couldn’t care less yet. Anyway, the two girls have their ma back now.
Highlight of Paz’s hospitalization is that she was granted an early discharged just so she could attend her company’s Christmas party cum “despidida” tribute for her. She has finally opted to retire. It was a moving tribute and she deserved it.
I just experienced something weird, out of the normal, this morning when I accompanied Paz to the doctor. It was her schedule to see the doctor, a week after undergoing hysterectomy.
After the appointment we went to the elevator area and waited for the car to take us down. While waiting, however, there was this man, older than me, who was approaching in our direction from the right side. I turned my head as he was nearing and for a split second our eyes locked before I resumed my conversation with Paz again and he passed us by the back. The man’s face kept coming back in my mind and was trying to remember if, indeed, I knew him. I couldn’t place him.
A minute or two after, I felt a tapping on my back and when I turned around there was this man, who was asking me if I was a Sievert. I said yes, and he told me immediately that he was the one who took care of the burial ceremony of my brother, Angel, a pilot, who died in a plane crash at the very young age of 28.
I tried striking a conversation with him, but he seemed in a hurry. I was just able to get his name which he gave as Roldan Gonzalez (the last name I am sure, though the first name is the best of my recollection). Still the name didn’t ring a bell.
What makes the whole thing weird to me is that, why did he come back to ask me if I was a Sievert? I don’t remember knowing him, much less seeing him.
I am 67 now, with salt and pepper hair and moustache, and practically white, trimmed beard. How could he have related me to Angel, 46 years after the fact? He even had a hard time remembering the name of the airline Angel worked for, which used to be Fairways and later changed to Filipinas in 1965. I was 21 that year.
Why was he remembering of Angel when he saw me? Angel had a distinct look all his own, so how could I ever be similar or alike him, in looks, at 67? I didn’t even know I would look like this in my old age, how much more for someone who has not known me at all, like Gonzalez. Would he have thought that Angel would look like me in his old age?
It simply boggles my mind!
Perhaps he has stumbled upon your blog and is one of your subscribers 🙂
LOL! Funny! Never thought about that. But, why didn’t he mention it? I still doubt it. Thanks for stumbling upon this site.
I can’t seem to blog about anything yet and for as long as the holidays are here.
Family affair takes precedence over what’s happening here and abroad. It’s not always that I have them. Besides, these are the kind of holidays – Christmas season and the advent of New Year – that calls for attention towards members of the family who spends money for the trip and goes through all the hustle to spend time with you. It would simply be unpardonable not to mind or neglect their presence for something that you can do with out – it being a hobby and not a career.
I do not know, but for one reason or another, your mind also goes blank as to what to write about. Perhaps mine got worse and got so darn numb reading, seeing and listening to the poor victims of typhoon killer and holiday spoiler Sendong. Most of all, I am just so pissed at the way politics is wrecking havoc upon the populace. Like I said, don’t blame nature. Blame those in congress, in provincial capitols, in cities and municipal halls.
Anyway, I hope 2012 brings some changes to the ways of people – for the better. And there will be more interesting things to write about.
For now, allow me to enjoy my family. I miss those who can’t make it for now, but looking forward when they can. I understand. You may be the captain of your soul, but, definitely, you are not the master of your own work schedule, unless you run your own business.
Meanwhile, Happy Holidays and wish you all meaningful time with your families.
Year 2012 started auspiciously for our family and we owe it to nothing but hard work, determination, family support and supplications from the Almighty.
It’s appearing to be a year of settling for good, of finally finishing school and graduating after what it seemed to be a life-time of studies, of transferring assignment and work places, and last but not least, of promotions and stable jobs.
Time has finally come when Paz won’t be reporting for work anymore. I will no longer be alone by myself eating lunch. I will not be living anymore in solitude during day time, as if you are being quarantined. I have been “homebound” since I felt burnt out and quit working, while Paz continued being employed. Now I have a companion that I can laugh with experiencing each other’s senior moments.
This year will see Iñaki transferred to sales, after being Petron Corporation’s training director. We are awaiting confirmation from him re this movement, where he will be handling an area in Luzon in managerial capacity. Petron is now owned by San Miguel Corporation and he was one of those who survived the ‘cleansing’ before being absorbed by SMC. After 15 years with Petron, hard work is starting to pay-off by being among those setting policies and direction of the company. No stopping Iñaki’s rise. Way to go King!
If there has ever been a sigh of big relief, like, when one exhales audibly in a long, deep breath as in, ‘WHEW!’, I have never heard one as loud as Angie’s! And for a reason! You see, Angie, after almost 20 years of studies, and in between giving birth to two outspoken, ‘mind-of-her-own’ girls and running the household, eventually earned her PhD in Psychology Major in Clinical Counseling from De La Salle University. While most of her college classmates have been enjoying life, one way or the other, Angie has been practically struggling to make her dream come true. She must have done exceptionally well for she is not only receiving her doctorate degree, but she was chosen to give the valedictory address during the college recognition day on February 1, 2012. You make us all proud, Angie! Thanks.
Not to be outdone, Chavi also has made a bold step in transferring from Shangrila’s Mactan Resort and Spa Hotel to Mactan’s Crimson Hotel Resort and Spa, effective January 24, 2012. From being a Group’s Coordinator in Shang, Chavi has accepted a higher position and a corresponding bigger responsibility by becoming Crimson’s Duty Manager. It’s about time and Chavi deserves it! The challenge now is to make a difference. Go for it, son!
Me, no stopping the hair growing gray and body pains increasing. But I am not complaining.
Overall, life has been good and I could not ask for more. I am blessed. I am happy.
I am so grateful to have you all.
May good health sustains us all this year and for many, many more years.
gracias pap… once i told myself that in this regard, i will save the best for last… and it has happened 🙂 ive always been first honorable mention hehehe now, at 36yo, i get to be valedictorian… not an easy feat considering that things most joyous and significant, things most painful, the most challenging tasks physically, emotionally and cognitively happened within the six years i started and ended my phd.. ive never thought myself highly intelligent, that was always Inaki 🙂 and there were always people better than me.. what saw me through were hard work and determination: when there was still something to give, then there was no giving up; family’s love, support, belief and understanding: how would i have done all these without all that from the people who matter most; gratitude and giving back: life is not about me, that ive always known. ive always thought that the reason i am here is im meant to do something, life is about me for others and that propels me on.. i hope one day amaya and mayumi will see the value of what i did and what i went through.. that they see there is so much good and right in this world and that we can be that which is good and right. thank you for everything. quiero mucho
Let me just take this opportunity to greet Iñaki, Angie and Chavi and their respective family a Happy Valentines Day!
Work and family have taken you away from us, but recognizing this day as one of sharing your love for one another, it has become a tradition that we, as parents, have always explicitly expressed the same coming deeply from our hearts.
Expressions of love, more than anything, have build up our relations and made as stronger, determined, understanding and supportive of one another. It is what has carried us over all these years, through good times and bad.
Wherever you guys are now and whatever you have attained in life, thus far, is a testament to this endearing, yet mighty word of affection – love.
We could never be more thankful and proud of your individual response that carries with it a sense of passion that makes a whole lot of difference.
Somebody once said that ‘the love of family is life’s greatest blessing.”
As we have done, we urge you all to understand and embrace it, for as Desmond Tutu also said, “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”
On this occasion, let me re-print and share with you this prayer that, God knows, have nothing but our sincere intentions for you:
Dear Lord,
On Valentine’s Day
I pray that You will
cover my family
with Your grace and protection.
I pray that You will
draw each one of them
ever closer to You,
supporting them,
encouraging them,
being always with them
as they go through
life’s ups and downs.
I pray that You will
help them, love them,
make them Yours.
In Jesus’ name I pray; amen
My brother Oger, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, is now in Cebu for a visit. This is his first visit since ma died in 2010, which some of us siblings, including Oger, witnessed her passing.
With ma no longer here and the house sold since then, Oger, as well as the other siblings living abroad who comes for a visit have made it point to stay with Eton, the oldest of the brothers. Gang, our younger sister and a special person who has been ma’s constant companion for over 50 years has also been given accommodation in Eton’s house.
I always look forward to Oger’s visit and I relish every moment we are together. I know the feeling is mutual. We have always been close growing up and I was devastated when he left for the U.S. to enhance his medical profession and practiced it there. He is four years older than I am.
Struggling to succeed in his profession, which he did, and gotten married, he did not really have the luxury of money and time, then, to be coming home.
Our paths crossed so many years after when I joined the U.S. navy and got sent for training in San Diego. Upon graduation, the first thing I did was book a flight to Michigan where I became a godfather to his first born, Mike.
Despite his strenuous schedule of work and study we still were able to spend good time recollecting the past and going places with his wife Chris.
While I was in the service doing a stint in Vietnam, I always made it a point that after we return to the mainland from finishing a tour of duty, I pay Oger a visit. That ended when I decided to return to the Philippines for good.
When Oger had already a flourishing practice and even in his retirement, he has always been coming home, like a good son that he was, to visit pa and ma. He continued his yearly visit even when pa died already many years earlier.
Things have changed now since ma died, not only to Oger, but for those who have taken residences abroad. Ma has always been the common denominator for them all. Not only is that ma no longer exists, but age is getting the better of us all. Except for our two younger sisters, we are all way past our 60s and 70s and heading towards our sunsets.
Oger and I visited the graves of the family’s departed ones and we agreed to the reality that life is getting short with the living, for our love ones, and sooner than much later we will be in the company of the dead.
How time has flown. How precious life has become and how thankful we all can be for having gone this far.
But, no one is exempted from the cycle of life.
Today it is us, tomorrow will be yours.
From dust to dust.
Es interesante que hay un escritor espanol en este pais que escribe en espanol y ingles.
Interesante. Muy interesante. Que escriba cada dia para anotar los detalles de tu vida y dejar mensajes del corazon a tus queridos. Me parece que no te queda mucho tiempo.
Muchas gracias por su comentario.Usted tiene razón, no hay tantos filipinos que hablan español ahora. Gracias a mis padres, que nos obligó a hablar español en casa, puedo hablar y escribir el idioma). Mi abuelo (junto con sus dos hermanos) vinieron a Filipinas de Cádiz, España.
en ninguna edad podemos decir que nos queda mucho o poco tiempo. un recién nacido o un anciano no puede adivinar cuando tiene que ir.
Exactamente!
Nothing much happening on this page, the reason for updates being far-in-between. Looks like everyone is in their rightful places, working their butts off, earning, enjoying, and busy raising their respective family. Iñaki is finally Davao-based now handling and responsible for Petron’s sales for southern Mindanao in a managerial position. I have confidence in Iñaki’s competence, the reason for his having gone this far at a very young age. Prayers and humility are keys. My only advise is to put the welfare of kids over and above whatever corporate ambitions he has.
Great things are happening with Angie’s job, too. More people, especially in the medical profession are getting to know her and her humanitarian work with Kythe Foundation, especially in its Child Life Program, is opening doors for her own professional enhancement that will translate later to better child care. Kythe caters to the psycho-social needs of pediatric patients (especially those with chronic illness, such as cancer) in government hospitals around the country. I understand it is almost always a distressing, heart-wrenching job to be around cancer stricken children, but to be able to help is enough consolation. I hope the more fortunate ones could share their blessings in helping fund the medical and other supplementary needs of these children, especially those confined in government hospitals with inadequate facilities.
On his part, the best thing that has happened to Chavi is taking the decision/gamble to transfer from Shangri-la resort hotel to Crimson resort hotel. The risk was worth it as he finds himself applying his managerial skills to the hilt. Not until you are given the responsibility and authority to handle people, solve problems and decide for management during your work hours will you start appreciating the trust given you and the respect shown you by the company. With diligence, commitment and foresight, I have high hopes for Chavi to do well in his niche.
Allow me to share with you not only a good news, but a fulfilling one at that, coming from Angie.
She says, “i guess hard work, perseverance and tremendous amount of patience and sacrifice
does pay off.. no where to go but up hopefully 🙂 finally… a certified specialist in counseling psychology recognized by the psychological assoc of the phil 🙂
Psychological Association of the Philippines
Room 210, 2/F, PSSCenter Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Tel/Fax No.: 453-8257; E-mail Address: pap_1962_08@yahoo.com
PAP Website: pap.org.ph
June 1, 2012
Angelita Rosario Sievert-Fernandez, PhD
Dear Dr. Fernandez,
Congratulations! The PAP Evaluation Committee for the Certification of Counseling Psychologists has approved your application. You are now part of the third batch of PAP’s Certified Specialists in Counseling Psychology.
Your certification is valid from June 1, 2012 until May 31, 2015, and from now until then you can display your credential as PAP Certified Specialist in Counseling Psychology. The PAP will provide you with a certificate and an identification card indicating this credential.
Similarly, the PAP will also publish a Registry of Certified Specialists in Counseling Psychology. However, in order to ensure that your entry in the registry is accurate, we would like to request you to email the PAP Secretariat the complete professional name you wish to be written in the registry. In addition, please include your contact number/s and email address only if you wish this information to be included in the registry. We would like to ask you to email all these information within three days of your receipt of this letter.
I would like to remind you that PAP Certification comes with responsibilities. First, it is expected that you would be guided by the PAP’s Code of Ethics for Philippine Psychologist. Second, it is expected that you would continue to upgrade your professional knowledge by participating in various types of continuing professional activities. The renewal of your certification will be dependent on your compliance with these two expectations.
We also would like to request that you pick up the documents you submitted in support of your application not later than July 31, 2012. The PAP Secretariat will properly dispose all documents that are not retrieved by the latter date.
Very truly yours,
Ma. Caridad H. Tarroja, PhD
President
Anybody wanting to avail of her services especially those relating to psycho-social needs of pediatric patients (especially those with chronic illness, such as cancer), she can be contacted at this address:
ANGIE SIEVERT-FERNANDEZ, Ph.D.
Counseling Psychologist
Child Life Program Manager
Kythe, Inc.
Tel. 02-3763454
http://www.kythe.org
This is just about more on what Angie is up to these days.
What is reprinted here comes from Balita, a publication of the Philippine News Agency, which tries to raise awareness of the existence of Kythe and the assistance/needs it requires in terms of compassionate volunteers and gracious donors for children afflicted with cancer and other chronic illnesses.
Kythe calls for more psycho-social care volunteers for children with cancer, other chronic illnesses
June 27, 2012 9:46 pm
By Sweetie de la Torre
MANILA, June 27 –Local stars, such as Jericho Rosales, John Llyod Cruz, Sharon Cuneta, Robin Padilla to name a few, and other people from all walks of life have taken time to visit cancer-afflicted children at their hospital beds to ease the patients’ pain, anxiety, fear and stress.
Now it’s your turn and mark your calendars and be the next groups of volunteers who would provide psycho-social care to children with cancer and other chronic illnesses, through Kythe, a non-profit organization.
Kythe has provided psycho-social care to more than 8,000 children with cancer and other chronic illnesses. It has scheduled its next orientation for volunteers on July 14.
“It is fortunate to have volunteers and partners who regarded the Kythe experience as their mantra in paying it forward. It dawned on them that helping children with chronic illnesses is a cause truly deserving of their energies and resources,” according to Maria Fatima “Girlie” Garcia-Lorenzo, co-founder of Kythe, the first certified child life specialist in the Philippines during a media forum held at the BayLeaf Hotel in Intramuros Manila Wednesday.
Accordingly, Kythe Child Life Specialists have continuously sought to learn about what the child-patient thinks and feels while confined in the hospital through the organization’s Child Life Program.
Kythe pursues its Child Life Program in partnership with 11 public and private hospitals nationwide, which include Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, Batangas Regional Hospital, Bicol Medical Center, Dr. Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Hospital, National Children’s Hospital, Perpetual Succour Hospital Cebu, Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Tarlac Provincial Hospital, University of Sto. Tomas Hospital and Southern Philippines Medical Center.
“We enter the child’s world through play. “We use play because it is the child’s way to communicate happiness, hurts and fears. And once we have a grasp of what the child-patient needs, we provide the necessary interventions like preparation and education about the illness, coping techniques during medical procedures and emotional support during times of grief,” said Dr. Angelita Sievert-Fernandez, clinical psychologist and Kythe Child Life Program manager.
“Many times, we have also provided for their physical needs like chemotherapy medicines and financial support for medical procedures. This is what the Kythe Child Life Program is about. It is understanding the child’s life in the hospital and responding to their needs in a holistic way. Because in Child Life we make sure “the hospital is not only a place to heal, but also a place to learn play and grow.” Fernandez said.
Interested volunteers may coordinate with Kythe through its website http://www.kythe.org or E-mail: info@kythe.org.
Kythe debriefs volunteers on the emotional impact of the illness on the kids.
Kythe’s program is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Corporate volunteers may avail of Kythe’s corporate accounts, through any of the following donation packages — Sagot Kita (Adopt-A Hospital Package), Kapitan Kimo ( Adopt-a-Patient Package), Kapit-Kamay (Adopt-A-Child Life Team Package).
Kythe also offers a free forum among Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility managers in the business community, scheduled on June 29 at AIM Conference Center. (PNA) RMA/SDT/utb
During the early stages of the torrential rains, that ultimately inundated Metro Manila (MM) and many regions of Luzon, Angie’s first born, Amaya, now 4, was brought to the hospital for an up and down fever that had been going on for a couple of days already.
Not wanting to take any risks, especially that the bad weather showed no signs of letting up, they decided to have Amaya checked for dengue and true enough she had it.
While it was a relief that a hospital was located not too far away and on higher grounds, and Amaya received treatment immediately, we could not help but worry about the alarming situation that MM and the rest of Luzon was having in the face of continuous heavy downpour that was fast engulfing and threatening the lives of people.
As much as we did not want to see another specter of the proportions of Ondoy, when it visited Manila in 2009, wrecking havoc on lives and properties, the fact is, it was seemingly getting to be a repeat.
We could only thank God that Iñaki’s family is now in safer grounds, even if he was not with Ay, Klaus and Maive, because of his job in Davao. Angie’s place has always been okay and even if Angie was not around, Rodin was there for Mayumi.
Our worry now was more on how people were coping up in the affected areas.
It is never easy when people are displaced and find themselves crammed in small place with inadequate facilities for comfort, limited food, and with only few belongings saved to call their own.
But hope is not lost when there are organizations, corporations, and people, either fortunate or less fortunate, but with kind hearts and selfless motivations, who react immediately by donating food and other relief items, while others come forward as volunteers for any assistance they can do to help and alleviate the lives of the victims that are housed in temporary shelters now.
It makes us happy to be able to help in our own little way by coursing it through Angie because we are in Cebu. Angie knows best what to give and we will continue helping while we can. It is very fulfilling.
It even made us more happier, as parents, that Rodin and Angie has started showing and inculcating in the minds of Amaya and Mayumi, the meaning of help, compassion and love for their fellow-being, especially the less fortunate and more so to victims of calamities, as they have seen now.
Angie has been telling us that aside from the used clothes, toys, water, toiletries, and ready to eat food they have donated, they also hard-boiled around 400 pieces of egg, cooked rice, and I don’t know what else, for distribution.
Most of all we are praying that soon enough the victims, with the help of government, both national and local, will start picking up the pieces of their lives and make a heroic comeback and recoup their loses for a better future.
As I write, I hear and saw beautiful, no doubt expensive fireworks up in the ritzy subdivision in the mountains in celebration for something. Paz and I could only shake our heads. What a waste of money. It could have feed the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Luzon.
It was nice to have Angie and family come to Cebu last week to visit us, while at the same time to attend the 49th Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) Annual Convention. The PAP has now conferred on her the title of Certified Specialist in Counseling Psychology and Certified Developmental Psychologist. This are now dreams come true. Congratulations!
But what really made our days during their visit are our new laughable experiences with Amaya and Mayumi – their ways and antics. They were talkative and aggressive that I pitied Maitina, who Chavi described was having a ‘culture’ shock. It took quite a while before she started inter-acting with the Manila duo.
That is what happens when you don’t see them often. You will always be surprised by the way they have grown, the way the look, the change in demeanor, and the most amazing thing of all – how articulate they have become and you will love to tease them already, especially Mayumi.
Looking forward to seeing Klaus and Maive one of these days.
Today August 25, and every year on this day, is always a celebration of mixed emotions. It is Angie’s birthday, but at the same time it is papa’s death anniversary. Both occasions always manifest that, while happy and sad on one hand, on the other hand you are dealing with reality and unbelievability.
Reality is that Angie is 37 years old now! Would you believe that? Unbelievably, however, is that pa has been dead for 20 years now! That is reality.
Happy birthday, Gie! May you have many more happy, healthy birthdays to come. It was a candle and flowers for pa this morning.
Incidentally, on the other side of the globe, Paul, my brother Rudy’s second son, is also celebrating his birthday today.
I should have written this last night, but the reported 7.6-magnitude earthquake that made me unstable in my seat at about 8:47 made me forget all about it as I was engrossed at watching and listening on TV latest updates, which among other things involved tsunami warnings.
The quake struck off the coast of the country, with its epicenter about 65 miles southeast of the coastal town of Guiuan in eastern Samar. Thankfully the tsunami alert was lifted later.
What I was about to write was simply to mention that it was my mother’s 2nd death anniversary. How time flies!
Haven’t seen ma for two years and yet everything is still vivid about her. We all miss her and will continue to miss her.
Our consolation is knowing and feeling that wherever she is, she is there interceding for us.
Thanks ma. thanks for all the memories. It will be cherished til the day we join you and the rest who have gone ahead.
Not my intention to stop updating this page any longer. Somehow I get overwhelmed at how fast the days are passing by that I can’t seem to keep track anymore family events of which this page is mostly all about.
Suffice to say that all is doing well – Iñaki in Davao, Angie in Manila and Chavi in Cebu. Their future even looks promising as Iñaki just finished a month-study at AIM courtesy of Petron. Angie, only recently received the following invitation:
Dear Angie,
Congratulations! We have received many abstracts but it is with great pleasure that I can inform you that your abstract has been selected and we’re looking forward to your presentation at the First Interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare in South Africa on 12 and 13 April 2013 at the Netcare Head Office in Sandton. Please confirm that you are still available and will be able to travel to South Africa for the conference before Thursday 6 December 2012 so that we can finalize the program.
Kind regards,
Annemarie
Dr Annemarie Oberholzer (RN; D Cur)
President
Organisation for Paediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA)
Postal Address: PO Box 16039; Lyttelton; 0140; South Africa
Cell: +27 (0) 825625912
http://www.opssa.org.za
While Chavi may not be going anywhere, he, however, has his own house now in Lapu-lapu and has contributed a great deal of knowledge and leadership in his job at Crimson Resort Hotel.
You guys are making me and your ma proud – no end.
Am just simply amazed at how they found their niche and got stuck to it – except for Angie who is smart enough to choose a course where she could work at her own time and still be able to go places. During my time, at any of their ages, I probably had had 3 or 4 different jobs already. That’s how volatile I was. Mommy Pie is very happy nobody took after me.
We are equally proud and happy the way Klaus, Maive, Amaya, Mayumi and Maitina are growing up. Klaus had his first communion already and less of a devil now. Maive, as always, growing prettier and girlish, Amaya, getting more curious, knowledgeable and articulate and, thus, throwing more ‘matured’ questions at a very young age. Mayumi, I don’t know – elfish is the best word to describe her and Amaya’s torturer. Maitina – nobody beats her. She is the fashion trend-setter of them all!
Sure was nice to have all of them here during the holidays, but unfortunately it was not all fun and pleasure. Somehow nature unleashes some kind of virus in the air and the small ones succumb to it. Between coughs and colds and throwing up and fevers and visits to the doctor, days become worrisome and stressful,
It always starts in Angie’s room and so before the doctor even makes any diagnosis on what is wrong, the room is always blamed for harboring bad spirit.
But it has always been like that ever since each one of them, from Iñaki, Angie and Chavi, have had something strange to say about the room. Now, nobody wants to stay in Angie’s room anymore especially if they bring along their kids.
It will become a new normal in 2013 that if their respective family gets reunited again, that we just have to give up our room and stay in Angie’s room so each one can have their own room and be able to rest peacefully. I don’t think the bad spirit, if it really exist, will care to bother old people anymore. Had a good night sleep when I was made to move to that room one night. Any way, for whatever good it brings, we plan of contracting a “spiritista” or a quack medium who would try to ease out whoever the unseen force is – gracefully.
But, really, we cannot thank enough for what the last year had been for all of us. All continued to have stable jobs and successfully meeting new challenges. God has continued blessing every one with good health too.
We can only hope that 2013 will continue to be beneficial for the country, for the people and for our respective families in particular.
We just have to continue praying, believing and trusting God.
One morning, a few days ago, I was at the front yard looking at the plants, the flowers and what have you, as I always do, when at the corner of my eye I saw something flying and moving. Took a closer look at it and what I saw gave me goosebumps. It was honey bees colonizing a branch of a ficus-like tree growing in the yard.
Am sure they moved in during the night because that afternoon, Paz and I – we normally spend our time at the back and front yards before it grows dark – didn’t notice anything unusual.
The bees were swarming and the beehive was getting bigger that if I didn’t do something about it, that we will find ourselves confined inside the house most of the time as the hive was near our porch. Definitely it was going to be hazardous for anybody going out to the front yard, but I didn’t want my routine going out around the house interrupted by these insects.
From experience and from contacts with honey gatherers I learned that smoke is what disperses the bees and drives them away.
So with the empty flower pot that we have, I started building a fire and putting dried and moist leaves to smoke the bees out. The problem, however, was that I could only generate so much smoke as I did not want the neighbor complaining about it – especially that their air condition unit was very near the bee hive. In fact the smoke that drifted towards the bee hive did not stirred them at all.
Not wanting to be outsmarted by these insects, I sought the help of the internet and the result was simply unbelievable.
ehow.com in their, ‘Home remedies to get rid of bees’, recommended the use of moth balls, and luckily enough I had extra of this item that I kept to repel silverfishes. But, In lieu of pantyhose I used plastic hand gloves and pricked the finger parts with the biggest needle I had so its odor would come out more noticeably, and, presto! – in less than 5 minutes, it was like using the famous idiom – stirring the hornet’s nest – as it did when the bees started detaching themselves from the branch, swarming nearby and getting lost later.
What a startling remedy, indeed!
I must admit I am not really too good at updating on time notable family happenings/events of which this page is all about. Nevertheless, I will try to remember and relate the most significant ones.
Topping it of course is the invitation from the Organization for Pediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA), in partnership with Netcare, for Angie to be one of the speakers at their Inaugural South African Conference: Supporting Children in Healthcare, the first interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare, held last April 12-13, 2013.
Not only was she invited to speak, but was also asked to start the pre-conference International Forum Discussion, a day before, at the Netcare Head Office highlighting Child Life Services in the Philippines and how (if at all) it differs from the USA and how it can benefit Child Support Services in South Africa.
Angie was the lone Asian invited to present her paper on the “Developmental Characteristics in, Chronically Ill Filipino Children’s Concept of Pain: An Exploratory Study”, and talk about it.
After that well-received presentation in SA, Angie is again preparing for a trip to the US where she will be attending the Child Life Council 31st Annual Conference on Professional Issues in Denver, Colorado from May 16-19, 2013. She is also hoping to pass the exams to be given and obtain her credential as Certified Child Life Specialist. Hope she gets it.
She will also take this opportunity to visit relatives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Iñaki is doing well in Davao. I am sure he will even exceed expectations in his job as he is equally well motivated, too, now that there is a newly opened recreation facility for flying ultra-light planes in Mati. In fact he received water dousing again for successfully flying a higher category plane. The place is new that he could have been the first client to try both plane and airfield.
Chavi also doing well and contented where he is now at Crimson resort hotel. Joining Crimson seems to be the best thing that happened to his career. Crimson is getting to be well known and fast growing.
Can’t ask for more for the three of them, their spouses and children. All are doing well in their own rights and the children growing up fast and smart.
I can only thank God for the blessings and good health.
In my last post on this page I mentioned about Angie preparing for a trip to the US to attend the Child Life Council 31st Annual Conference on Professional Issues in Denver, Colorado from May 16-19, 2013.
This, after honoring an invitation from the Organization for Pediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA), in partnership with Netcare, for her to be one of the speakers at their Inaugural South African Conference: Supporting Children in Healthcare, the first interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare, held last April 12-13, 2013.
What she attended in Denver was a gathering of Child Life Specialist from all over the US and the world. Delegates included those from South Africa, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Kuwait and the Philippines, represented by Angie.
After the conference, Angie proceeded to the states of New Jersey and New York where she had the opportunity to observe child life programs at the John La Conti, M.D. Fund Child Life Department of the Saint Barnabas Medical Center and at the Tisch Hospital, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, respectively. The observation was more on what and how services of child life programs were provided to children and their families. These were added educational hospital tour on child life program after visiting one at the Children’s Hospital in Denver.
While in the US, Angie learned that, effective March 2013, she has been considered a Certified Practitioner in Therapeutic Play Skills after being awarded the certificate by the Play Therapy International, UK and the Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy.
The certificate is a culminating award after undergoing workshops and trainings in HK, where Angie participated in September 2010 and March 2011. Her internship, which was under the supervision of a certified play therapist from the UK, on line, was done in government hospitals in the Philippines.
Congratulations, Angie! Looks like more titles now are being added after your name.
Congratulations indeed! Be proud as we all are of what you are doing.Your field of work is inspiring and much needed these days.Thank you for helping make the world a better place for the children.
There is no stopping Angie from soaring higher in what she is doing.
While this is good for her professional advancement, what it means, however, is that today, more than any other time in the country’s history, the important issue of pediatric support or child life service is in the forefront of international discussion and concern.
After having been invited by the Organization for Pediatric Support in South Africa (OPSSA) to present her paper on the “Developmental Characteristics in, Chronically Ill Filipino Children’s Concept of Pain: An Exploratory Study” at their Inaugural South African Conference: Supporting Children in Healthcare, the first interdisciplinary Academic Conference on the Holistic Support of Children in Healthcare, held last April 12-13, 2013, Angie has again received an invitation to present her latest study, ‘Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of the Hospitalized Child: The Role of the Child Life Program’.
Below is the letter of invitation:
Dear Angelita Sievert-Fernandez,
In behalf of the Board of Directors of the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP), I am pleased to inform you that the abstract you submitted entitled, Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of the Hospitalized Child: The Role of The Child Life Program has been accepted for a paper presentation in the joint 4th Congress of the ASEAN Union of Psychological Societies (ARUPS) and the 50th Annual Convention of the Psychological Association of the Philippines, to be held at Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines on October 23-26, 2013. Congratulations!
Very truly yours,
JAY A. YACAT
Chair, Scientific Program Committee
The joint 4th ARUPS Congress and 50th PAP Annual Convention will focus on the role of ASEAN psychologists in building hope and resilience among individuals, families, organizations and communities amidst adversity. Among the specific topics to be explored under the convention theme are (1) disaster preparedness and response; (2) peace, conflict and violence; (3) surviving human adversity; (4) change management; (5) poverty reduction, social development and community empowerment; and (6) applied positive psychology.
Today marks the 48th death anniversary of my older brother, Angel, one of the subjects when I wrote “9/11s of my life” (https://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/911s-of-my-life/). How time flies. I was inconsolable when he died. He was not only a big brother to me, he was my confidante. It was hard to accept then that at his prime, at 28 years of age, he would be gone forever. It was a consolation to me that a year after I was recruited by the US Navy. It helped assuage my feeling of loss, although there were times when I longed for him. Now, 48 years after, I feel my longing is getting shorter. I am glad I have lived this long to be able to see how his family went through so well without him. It matters because the time of waiting before I get to see him again – if ever this happens – is closing and somehow that feeling is somewhat relieving. I realize now that if God has willed you to live longer it is because there are things undone that you still have to accomplish. But, it is never your choosing. It his His. Life is not about luck. It is about fate. Thus, when ones time is up, the reconnection that one makes with those long departed whom you missed terribly in life is worth the waiting.
I can’t seem to keep up writing on this page. Days come and go so fast and between events happening also changeably pronto inside, around you and the world, I just can’t seem to find enough time updating this page.
But between the last entry I made and the aftermath of the twin killers, Bohol earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, we had had great time having the children and grandchildren visiting us. Boy, how the grandchildren have all grown up and have minds of their own, which makes it interesting in dealing with each of them. Where they are now in age and what they have learned growing up is directly proportional to the noise and antics they make, which make the house full and chaotic.
All the children are doing well in their respective jobs except for our daughter-in-law, Ay (Iñaki’s wife) who was lured to a high paying job only to find out that she was entering the lion’s den. We found ourselves guilty as we gave her our two cents worth of advice thinking that the advantages weighed more than the disadvantages. We were all wrong as she found out later, but fortunately her old employer has left the door open for her come back – the prize for being a good worker. Behind it is always a moral lesson.
This morning, Novermber 23, I met Angie at the airport and we had brunch together. Coming from a medical mission in the suburbs of Tacloban, she arrived tired and hungry.
Earlier this morning she guested in ABS-CBN’s Salamat Dok program where she was interview about her work in helping children cope with the psychological trauma inflicted on them by super typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan.
Talking to her later, how she wished she had more time to spare as she saw the need for her kind of profession to help children, and even older people people, cope with the trauma experienced during the typhoon and be able to live normal lives again.
Does not seem easy to treat/process children whose lives have changed drastically bad or worse in a short time – either losing homes, losing family members or losing those which has always been familiar to them. The impact to their young brains is unimaginable and normality/cure will depend on the severity of the trauma.
She was telling me about the devastation, which she described as a scene straight out of a disaster movie. She took videos that I haven’t seen in the media before and they were simply heart-wrenching. Once I get those videos I will try to share it with you in my regular blog.
Suffice to say that in an extensive destruction such as seen in Tacloban and its suburbs, there are still many survivors that are in need of food, water and other essentials. But, most importantly what is badly needed are temporary shelters that could house the homeless, especially the kids, the old and the infirm.
With all kinds of aid donated by the international community, I hope the national government and the non-governmental organization will try to expedite the delivery of the same so it could reach those needing it badly sooner than later.
This is how TV shows with irresponsible hosts/anchors can easily destroy your name and reputation. This happened only a few nights ago with Paz and I were watching it. We had to call Angie immediately late that night to confirm if what the hosts were saying were really Angie’s words because it didn’t sound right. The following is Angie’s version of what really happened:
As a clinician, I sometimes get requests to be a resource person in certain TV shows. They ask for the objective perspective of the professional on a topic the hosts/anchors may be discussing, and in my case, usually involving children and families. Yesterday, I accommodated a request to talk about “selfies” that was then aired on the news program, Bandila, later that night. I rarely watch myself on TV but thankfully, this time, I did. In the particular segment, the show seemed to want to point out that “selfies” are narcissistic with a narration on why it is such and the news anchor adding, “sabi ng isang psychologist..”. I wish that didn’t pertain to me but after a bit, it was my face on national TV briefly quoting studies done on FB users and then shortly after a very short clip of me saying something to this effect (can’t remember verbatim), “..may component ng lack of empathy and stepping on other people’s toes to get what they want.” Just that one liner that seemed to insinuate my opinion to support how selfies are narcissistic & why this is so. I was flabbergasted, to say the least, because in the interview done at home, I specifically explained that one has to take into account the motivation behind, the frequency of, etc., for one to consider a selfie as such. The line they chose to show was from a description I made of what narcissism may entail and how you can differentiate a selfie that may be a means for self-exploration, self-expresssion or a desire to connect to others (which I explained in detail but was not shown, for time constraints or maybe because it did not really serve their purpose) or otherwise. It is now a first hand experience on how very easily media can take things out of context by using only portions of what one says to serve their own purpose, even when that is not how it was explained nor is it the views of the interviewee. Unfortunately, they are the ones in control and listening to myself in that clip on national TV, seemingly supporting what the show wanted to convey all along (may agenda na pala even before the interview!) made me cringe. I know exactly what I said during the interview and it is definitely not only that one phrase the news program chose to crop and show. It is even more frustrating as Bandila, in an FB account, is said to be an “International Emmy-nominated late night news broadcast”. If it is held in such high regard, should they not show even a semblance of that regard to the professionals whose opinions they sought and who will be in their program? It is a lesson learned the unfortunate way for me and it is a confirmation that really, some will and can take me out of context for their benefit, despite my reputation being the one at stake. To make matters worse, I don’t even get paid a centavo for my time.
How I wish mother was still alive today.
Her vision of Angie – her education and work – was very prophetic. She seemed to have foreseen, and this she told Angie, that the latter will be traveling the world because of her work.
And she has been doing that ever since she earned her PhD in Psychology, attending conferences and being invited to talk in her field of discipline.
As I write, Dr. Angie, as she is called professionally, is en route to Toronto, Canada where she will attend the 46th Congress of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) to be held on October 22-25. Her abstract, “Addressing The Psychosocial Needs Of The Hospitalized Child: The Role Of The Kythe Child Life Program”, was accepted for an e-poster presentation. The poster will be displayed electronically and will be available for viewing on e-Poster stations throughout the congress.
Angie, a Counseling Psychologist and the Child Life Program Manager of Kythe Foundation Inc., will be joining a group of medical practitioners in pediatric oncology that forms part of the program My Child Matters – Philippines (MCM), supported by the Sanofi Espoir Foundation that works to raise awareness on pediatric cancer and to educate nurses, doctors and allied medical professionals working with children with cancer and their families throughout the Philippines.
Kythe CLP is learning about what the child-patient thinks and feels while confined in the hospital and making sure that “the hospital is not only a place to heal, but also a place to learn, play and grow.”
It was only in May 2014 that Angie was invited as a panel presenter in The State of International Pediatric Psychosocial Services, an invitational International Summit, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was the lone delegate from the country.
Will see where she goes next.
The only downside to all these travels is that I get to be left alone because my wife takes over in looking after Angie’s two daughters. They have a term for it here – APOstolic mission. APO is a Filipino lingo for grandchild. It is simply a family affair/business that has to be attended to by the grannies as dictated by custom and culture.
Since I am talking about family already, let me just include here that Iñaki, who has been working with Petron in Davao, has been moved up to a much larger area and a bigger responsibility in South Metro Manila. We are indeed very pleased with the movement.
Am sure Chavi’s time will come.
Needless to say we are proud where they are now in their careers.
How time flies!
It has been almost a year now – March 20, to be exact – since I had a total right knee replacement and I am so pleased having decided to go for it at the right time and for the right reasons. I can only thank God for the strength and the means, my family for their care and support during my difficult times, and last but not least of all, the doctor whom I trusted so much and who in turn made sure I can do away with the cane for as long as age permits.
Actually, I had been brisk walking every other day for around 45 minutes, six months after the surgery, but, lately, however, I had to stop and shifted instead to mounting a stationary bike and doing other exercises just at home. The reason for this is that I don’t want to aggravate what I think is the overused condition of my left knee.
It must be remembered that before my right knee got fixed, I was most of the time favoring my left leg when walking, and most especially when climbing up and down the stairs. It got to a point where I could feel and hear the knee cracking when it carries my shifted weight and effort is exerted. I knew that if I wasn’t careful enough, that it would get to be as weak as my right knee was. This is the timing I am talking about – to still have one knee serving its purpose while the other is being replaced.
In time my right leg with the metal-jointed knee was getting stronger than my left leg. It was more noticeable when walking downhill and supporting my weight as it gets shifted to the left. The pain I was feeling definitely told me that I had had enough and to go easy and not abuse further the deteriorating state of my left knee.
With hindsight I knew what to expect next, but I also knew that there wouldn’t be any second knee replacement at all. To have undergone knee replacement once, restraint is the better option to follow to stay happy, healthy and sane.
So much with my knees but, indeed, how time flies!
As I write, our eldest son Iñaki has just landed in Davao en route to Mate where he will start a new chapter in his working career, this after his 17 years stint with Petron Corp.
It looks like the All Seeing Eye in heaven has prepared his stay in Petron to be able to run business ventures owned by his new employer which, among other things, include flying ultra-light planes. Iñaki is an accomplished pilot of ultra-light planes, and like his laudable performance with Petron, I am sure he will find success in bringing the Mindanao SAGA Flying Club to greater heights that will make his new boss proud.
Suffice to say that Iñaki, like his two younger siblings, Angie (Certified Counseling and Developmental Psychologist) and Chavi (Cebu Crimson Hotel Duty Manager) have finally found his niche that will define his future from here on.