May 30, 2013 MAY CELEBRATIONS

May is a month that is a storehouse of memories to me. There is my childhood refrain of my frequent, almost daily participation in the May Flower Devotion to our Lady of the Abandoned, Patroness of our parish in Sta. Ana, Manila where I was born, reared and received my elementary education. Then there is the ever-memorable demise of my husband, Rey, on the second of May in 2003 after 47 years of wedded bliss. Also momentous on this month are the birthday anniversaries of some grandchildren. Melanie Mary was born on May 3rd, a day after Papa's entrance to Eternity. I consider this occurrence another evidence of my being "one of God's favorites." Why? Cielo, my daughter's due date was supposed to be during the last week of May but she gave birth right after my husband's departure. I consider it as God's way of telling me, "I took someone you love but I will fill your "emptiness" with someone to love - at once!!" Who can consider this "coincidence?" Tiffany Anne, another daughter of Cielo, celebrates May 12th as her birth date and Michael, Bobby's son, blows off candles on his B-day cake on May 25th. Two of my siblings, Freddie and Beth saw the first light of day on the 13th and 21st of May, respectively. 

While I have penned a tribute to Rey, my husband in an earlier blog, I wish to convey my fond memories of my brother, Freddie, who "crossed the Bar" a few years back.

                     FREDDIE

Your birthday anniversary turned back the hands of 
 time
And thoughts of you filled some of my waking hours
Our childhood days flashed across my mind's screen
So clear and fresh as early spring flowers.

I remember the many games we enjoyed playing
Hide and seek, "patintero" and marbles, too
Telephone calls we made through empty milk cans
 we fashioned
With long strings in which we "blah-blah-ed with 
 childish passion.

The pebbles we gathered and polished with care
Served as "jack stones" in games we both shared
We played and at times argued with kids on the block
In the nearby meadow we flew kites in the air.

With a roll of Manila paper from Mother's stock
We wrote stories and linked drawings, stand-out scenes
Then we folded and wrapped our long tales on a stick
Made a sideshow on a shoe box, our movie screen.

We were always together not only at play
Close by each other even at work on home duties
Scrubbed window sills, banisters, floors, ever so gay
Work seemed so light with one who is not foolish.

We were a twosome, other friends used to say
I was by your side though with boys at play
Likewise you were among the girls with whom I
wiggled
Through our "playing house" games of girlish giggles.

You loved to draw, mold clay with your hands
Make newspaper airplanes, kites with colorful
strands
You were creative with your hands though words
came out with difficulty
To describe the thing of beauty you shaped into reality.

As God so willed it you ventured into architecture
And I found my calling in the field of teaching
We both went our destined path of grand adventure
Each with a better tomorrow in our hearts throbbing.

Like all lives, in time, we formed our own families
A receptacle of the love overflowing within
Though our spouses and children became our 
          immediate concern
Yet our love for our siblings remained full to the brim.

Unrelenting, with passion, we pursued life's demands
But kept brotherly love reigning supreme in our hearts
To the very end when the candle of life gave way
At God's beckon call to His haven far away.

Now that you have unspeakable joy in heaven
Your well-deserved rest for the blessings you gave
To others especially to me which cannot be shaken
By anyone till I am laid to rest in my grave.

                      XXXXXXXX