Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
My Mother
“One night as I lay down sleeping,
My sister by my side,
I heard a voice from heaven,
Telling my mother died”
Some lines from “Mother’s Song”, a song I sang as a child that made many mothers cry not only mine, a song that made me win many contests and somehow at an early age established me as a singer and performer. Little did I know that this song was going to be realized in my later years.
I was working in China then. My colleagues and I came home very late from a Good Friday ceremony. I stayed the night at my Jiejie Sarah’s house. I have decided to sleep in the following day as we planned to attend the Easter Vigil. For some reason, I woke up as I felt there was somebody waking me up. The moment I turned my phone on, my messages came in in dozens!
Soon enough my phone rang, it was my sister Rose calling from the Philippines.
We had some small talk as we usually do, then she digressed. And finally she said “oh by the way Mom died” Just like that. Then we hung up. I awoke my Jiejie Sarah to tell her the news. It was only then that it dawned on me..hey my Mom died! Then I started sobbing. Then one phone call came after another. Then in less than an hour I was already booked and ready for home. This was three years ago.
Indeed it was three years ago but I have not forgotten. Memories of my Mama I keep in my heart..happy memories I relive. My Mama loved dried salty fish very much, so (in her honor) I had that for breakfast today. That’s just one of the many things my Mama enjoyed.
One time in a conversation with my younger sister Josie Lynn, we talked about our love for bags and shoes. She just blurted that this was one thing that we definitely got from our Mama. Mama loved shoes and bags and she had them matched most of the time. She had many colors, practically all of the colors on the wheel. Even if she had tiny feet, she managed to keep her shoe collection updated.
I remember my Jiejie Sarah complimented me for my good tastes in clothes. That’s another of my Mama’s influence on us. She had closets and closets full of clothes. She even usurped part of Papa’s cabinet. My Mom had this habit of not repeating the clothes she had worn for at least a month. But my sister Rose overdid it! She kept a record of what she wore. She noted it on her calendar.
Mama enjoyed ballroom dancing. She loved dancing and she did it twice or three times a week. That was her regular exercise. She loved ballroom as much as she did Phillip (last name Morris). Her dance breaks would be spent with Philipp. Now we all know what Philipp did to her and my Papa and how the rest of Philipp’s relatives continue affect lives.
Every morning when I get ready for work and put on my make up, I smile at the sight of my Mom in the mirror. I smile at how much I have become like her in many ways, career, love for the good life, vanity and love for my children.
“So children obey your mother, obey them faithfully, for if you lose your mother, you lose the best of all!”
My sister by my side,
I heard a voice from heaven,
Telling my mother died”
Some lines from “Mother’s Song”, a song I sang as a child that made many mothers cry not only mine, a song that made me win many contests and somehow at an early age established me as a singer and performer. Little did I know that this song was going to be realized in my later years.
I was working in China then. My colleagues and I came home very late from a Good Friday ceremony. I stayed the night at my Jiejie Sarah’s house. I have decided to sleep in the following day as we planned to attend the Easter Vigil. For some reason, I woke up as I felt there was somebody waking me up. The moment I turned my phone on, my messages came in in dozens!
Soon enough my phone rang, it was my sister Rose calling from the Philippines.
We had some small talk as we usually do, then she digressed. And finally she said “oh by the way Mom died” Just like that. Then we hung up. I awoke my Jiejie Sarah to tell her the news. It was only then that it dawned on me..hey my Mom died! Then I started sobbing. Then one phone call came after another. Then in less than an hour I was already booked and ready for home. This was three years ago.
Indeed it was three years ago but I have not forgotten. Memories of my Mama I keep in my heart..happy memories I relive. My Mama loved dried salty fish very much, so (in her honor) I had that for breakfast today. That’s just one of the many things my Mama enjoyed.
One time in a conversation with my younger sister Josie Lynn, we talked about our love for bags and shoes. She just blurted that this was one thing that we definitely got from our Mama. Mama loved shoes and bags and she had them matched most of the time. She had many colors, practically all of the colors on the wheel. Even if she had tiny feet, she managed to keep her shoe collection updated.
I remember my Jiejie Sarah complimented me for my good tastes in clothes. That’s another of my Mama’s influence on us. She had closets and closets full of clothes. She even usurped part of Papa’s cabinet. My Mom had this habit of not repeating the clothes she had worn for at least a month. But my sister Rose overdid it! She kept a record of what she wore. She noted it on her calendar.
Mama enjoyed ballroom dancing. She loved dancing and she did it twice or three times a week. That was her regular exercise. She loved ballroom as much as she did Phillip (last name Morris). Her dance breaks would be spent with Philipp. Now we all know what Philipp did to her and my Papa and how the rest of Philipp’s relatives continue affect lives.
Every morning when I get ready for work and put on my make up, I smile at the sight of my Mom in the mirror. I smile at how much I have become like her in many ways, career, love for the good life, vanity and love for my children.
“So children obey your mother, obey them faithfully, for if you lose your mother, you lose the best of all!”
Thursday, February 18, 2010
i'm finally doing a blog or am i?
my daughter created this blog account in 2008 and i never used it until today...so here i am doing my first entry.
the past years all i've been writing were lesson plans
or editing work of colleagues or writing adaptations of fairy tales.
but of late
i have not been seriously busy
and have been hanging on the net quite a bit..
so i'm hoping that soon i'd be writing more often..
the past years all i've been writing were lesson plans
or editing work of colleagues or writing adaptations of fairy tales.
but of late
i have not been seriously busy
and have been hanging on the net quite a bit..
so i'm hoping that soon i'd be writing more often..
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