MAY 2nd IS SPECIAL

 MAY  2nd  Is  Special

May 2nd is special because it marks the day my husband, Rey, entered the pearly gates of heaven! Thoughts of more than four decades of marital union especially of the many happy times of our togetherness kept me from having my much-needed sleep. I decided to sit before my laptop and the result is the ff:

Dear Papa,

Today, May 2nd, my thoughts were centered on you since this is the 13th anniversary of your passing the threshold into God's warm embrace. While a part of me rejoiced over your well-deserved rest to enjoy the blessings of heaven, a greater portion of me languished over the grief and emptiness you left in my heart. The void has been irreplaceable and beyond cosmic repair through all these years! As a Christian, I have tried so many times to completely surrender to the will of God, in whatever comes my way. However, I have failed miserably, time after time, to do just that in regard to your passing - a loss which has been ingrained in my being. I must admit that for so long I have worn a mask of serene acceptance and total surrender before family, relatives and friends, alike. Only in times of my "alone-ness" have I shed off the mask of extreme grief and longing nestled in the bosom of my heart. After a while, moved by the futility of it all and the sin of not trusting in God, I would resolve to be a better Christian in this aspect of my life. Through the passing years, this interplay of conflicting emotions plagued me in almost sequential pattern. In every instance of its occurrence, I sought God's help only to be trapped within the tentacles of misery.

Then last Good Friday, in God's mysterious ways and in His own time, I felt the "peace beyond human understanding" envelop me as I let go of this dimension of my life - your passing away. I let go of the sadness that had lain moored in my heart for years. I was endowed with a wonderful feeling of peace that I believe could only come from the Holy Spirit! How true are the words of St. John Paul II when he said, "The Holy Spirit inspires, purifies and strengthens those noble longings by which we strive to make earthly life more human." 

Papa, you have been a loving and sincere husband, a solicitous father and grandfather, a responsible provider, a singer entertainer, a man with a green thumb, a jack-of-all-trades and most of all, a family chef, all rolled into one! What remarkable qualities few men can equal! In fact, the comments of relatives and friends who have witnessed your versatility attest to their admiration which sometimes had a tinge of envy. I know that I had many times expressed my appreciation and thanks to you but I feel that I have not adequately said nor done enough to drive home this fact more deeply. Therefore, here and now, I say, "Thank you so much for being the husband you had been to me and please forgive me for being less of the wife you would have wanted me to be."


 I dedicate these lines to you:

  To  My  Husband - REY

I celebrated the Liturgy of the Eucharist today
In your honor to Almighty God I prayed
"Thank you, Lord, for the life you have given me
Largely due to my husband you have sent from Thee."

To me, you personified the "man of all seasons" 
Truly because of a multitude of reasons
First and foremost was your love so sincere and true
Was untarnished in the years we've been through.

Like an invincible steel tower you stood upright
Against the wind of temptation, wayward sights
Empowered with a Faith which you had held strong
Since your childhood as an orphan struggling along.

"Common traits and interests are good," said a sage,
"to achieve maximum compatibility in marriage."
But God's sense of humor undefined such notion
He gave me a man of few words but one of action.

In your obscure, quiet and inimitable way
You put to naught and defiantly held at bay
Popular belief that a man with interest in many trades
Could not be a "master" of any chosen shade.

But you proved to all beyond a shadow of doubt
You excelled in carpentry, gardening, electric route
Car repair, in fact, a handyman through and through
And above all these, an excellent cook, too!

A "Thank you, Lord," will always be on my lips,
"For my husband, one of your magnanimous gifts."
 Our one-of-a-kind marriage lasted forty-seven years
All in all, gold-encrusted, despite occasional tears.

I know that now in your eternal home in heaven
You regale God with your songs sometimes shaken
With a plea that He guide and lead each one of us
To you, when "The End" comes to our earthly task.


I   LOVE   YOU,

Darling    ( to you )