Ron

When I got up at 9 a.m. on Saturday I noticed that my answering machine was blinking that indicates someone left a message or messages. First thing I'd thought was who would call me and left me a message in the morning. And I said, “That must be very important.”

When I played the message, it says “Carlo, wala na si Ronnie.” It was an overseas call from the Philippines. My initial reaction was disbelieved and upset because I just spoke with Ronnie on the phone on Monday, though he was in the hospital, he sounded perky and energetic. He was laughing and making jokes. So if that message was a prank that was a bad one. You don’t joke about someone’s death.

To confirm I called a friend (who’s also very close to Ronnie) but he was surprised and like me he refused to believe. I called my brother to check on Ronnie at Delos Santos Memorial Hospital. He sent me text message on my cell phone and said that Ronnie was already discharged from the hospital and sent home.

Still I was not convinced so I called Ronnie’s cell phone. His nephew answered the phone. Ronnie, my best friend and confidant for almost 30 years, left us. He died on Saturday night, Manila time, at Quezon City Medical Center. He was 51.

To My Mom

This day is the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, a reminder of every mother’s accomplishments trying to do the balancing act of being everything to everyone. Instead of giving her flowers and a greeting card, today I want to dedicate this page to my loving and caring mother for nurturing her five children and providing us a cozy safe home.

I was barely six years old when my father died, our eldest sister was ten, and my youngest brother was months old. My mom was an elementary school teacher then. With five young children to take care of, she struggled to financially support us with her teaching salary so she decided to go to the U.S. and left us with our grandmother in Project 4. My mom sold our house in La Loma.

She landed a teaching job in Philadelphia but she said it wasn’t enough to send money for us. So she went back to college and matriculated in nursing. Until we all migrated to the U.S. in 1980, she maintained her day job as a teacher and a night job in hospital as a Registered Nurse to save funds for our college education.

Mom, I have never written you a letter before to tell you how much I am blessed to have you as our mother. All the things that you’d done for us, we owe our success to you. You’d sacrificed your life for us to single handedly provide us the best care and education. You’d thought us to be independent, to be generous and most of all to be a better person.

We thank you and we will always love you. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.