Happy Birthday Nanay!

Feb. 01 -- Today's supposedly my mom's 61st birthday. Though she had gone up to heaven a weeks after she turned 58, our family still celebrates her birthday.

My mom lived a full life, I should say. She was the 2nd child, among 5 kids, of a simple family from Quezon. She graduated as Valedictorian both in Grade School and in High School. She went to Manila to study for college and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education from PNC. After that, she began to teach. At 24, she married my dad. She gave birth to my sister a year after and then had me when she was 29.

Throughout her life, she had a very successful teaching career. Teaching was her passion, her calling. I could see that her co-teachers and students loved her. She taught for more than 30 years which is even more than half of her lifetime. When she turned 50, I think, she decided to take up her Masters (in Values Education) at the University of Asia and the Pacific. It was like the icing on the cake.

She was a very jovial person. She was simple, very very kind and generous (virtues which are hard to come by). She loved to sing, she loved to eat. She was very pious. Countless of times, she would tell us how she wanted so much to enter the religious life. Since it was not meany to be, she instead served in our chapel and lead the Block Rosary devotion in our village.

I still remember vividly (like a flashback in the movies) the day that she bought me a rosary for the very first time. I think I was only Grade 1 or 2 then. The rosary was just the simple plastic type with blue beads. But I remember her handing it to me in their bedroom. And since my parents' room had an altar, I somewhat asked her to teach me how to pray the rosary and how to do it properly. The striking thing there was --- it was just 2 or 3 in the afternoon when that happened. We prayed the rosary at a very "ungodly" hour if you can call it that. It really struck me --- God still listens to us regardless of what time it is. Any time is a good time to pray. True noh? I reminisce that memory so often in my mind that whenever I feel lazy to pray, especially the rosary, that memory gives me the push to pray all the more.

In her married life, she loved my Dad a lot and served the whole family without any rest and complaints. She made us go to piano lessons and brought us to all the nice places. She also cooked the yummiest Sopas in the entire world. :-)

If there's anything memory that would make me cry instantly -- that would be anything related to my mom. She's my mother, my mentor, my teacher, my doctor, my nurse, my friend, and my spiritual idol. A few of my regrets -- sayang, you never saw me get married, you never saw me give birth and you never saw or held your apo (and future apos). I only wish and hope that in your lifetime, I was part of your happiness and that I somehow brought you pride and joy.

So to my everdearest Nanay --- I believe that you're now in Heaven with Jesus, Mama Mary and the saints. I love you and I miss you. Happy birthday Nay!