Life, Day by Day

"Death comes like a thief in the night"..."we all live on borrowed time"..."it's the best way to go"..."she is in a better place"... "you now have another angel in heaven"..."life goes on". All those words are true, but they do not lessen the pain...they do not take away the grief...they do not make the tears stop...they cannot remove the sadness brought about by the sudden loss of a loved one.

Aging is an inevitable fact of life , but it does not have to be burdensome or problematic. Just because a person is aged does not make him or her useless. My mother turned 80 years old in May but she continues to live a purposeful life. She has been suffering from osteoarthritis for the last 8 years or so, but it was not until 3 years ago that she began using a walker due to my insistence, primarily for her safety and my peace of mind. Last year, she developed adverse drug reactions resulting in gastrointestinal complications and lately, she gets tired more easily.  And so, as much as she would like to remain as active as she used to be, it is no longer possible and she has "retired" from most of her parish volunteer work and advocacy.  And rightly so because I believe that our elderly parents and relatives deserve to be worry-free, to be taken cared of, and comfortable in the remaining years of their lives. In 2011 I wrote an essay for EzineArticles on how to care

Mother's Day has come and gone, but the day before that a little girl asked me a question that needed an answer.  She asked me, "are you Preemie Girl's real mother?" Now, I don't know why little girls would even think to ask such questions, but I would make a smart guess that they learn about these words and ideas from the adults around them.  I don't think an innocent child would know that there is such a thing as a "real" mom (or dad, for that matter), if they are not made aware of the difference or this was not pointed out to them by...yes, adults. But that is another story.

Where you there when St. John Paul II (then Pope) visited Bacolod in February 1981? What do you remember about this historic event? The Papal visit came at a time when Bacolod and Negros Occidental needed it most. The sugar industry was in a deep crisis, militarization in the island was at its highest, farm children were starving, and then there was the Don Juan tragedy. People were excited, there were such high hopes about the visit. The place in Bacolod where the Pope would be saying mass was at the reclamation area. This place is now where SM City Bacolod, Bacolod Pavilion and Resort and the Bacolod Seaport can be found. But in 1981, this place was just a huge and vast field of cogon grass. For the Pope's visit the area was cleaned and cordoned off.

How did we spend Holy week this year?  When I was growing up, Holy Week was always a pious occasion for the family.  The children would play quietly during Holy Thursday and Good Friday while the adults would spend the time in silent reflection and speaking in low voices. We would religiously join the processions during these two days and join in most church activities. I'm sure the motivation for doing so was not the same for all of us kids, but even so, the meaning of Holy Week was not completely lost on us back then.   I miss those days.

Last March 18, 2014, Victorias Food Corporation (VFC) went beyond ordinary, launching their signature recipes created by Bacolod Academy of Culinary Arts (BACA) chefs, led by Chef Guenther Sanin from Austria and Chef Marcel Haessner from Germany.  These are easy to make mouthwatering dishes that can be used not only for fine dining but for dinner tables at home as well.  

Shhhhh...I just discovered a secret most women would love to know about. I stumbled upon a Facebook Page called MUA Secrets, (MUA stands for make up artist ) where trends, trade secrets and hard-to-find make-up products can be found. They had this eyebrow gel which I had been searching for the longest time ever, and was resigned to the fact that I will never be able to find one. You can just imagine how happy (ecstatic is a better word) I was to see that they had it!