Happy birthday, mama! I hope you still have a lot of years to spend with us, so stay healthy ok?
I love you very much!
This is my mom when she was 18 years old,. That is when she married my father too, in 1936.
Here she is with all her siblings. Unfortunately, her siblings are all gone. She outlived all of them. She is the second from the right in the front row.
This was taken when we had a big family reunion in the Philippines when my grandma (my dad's mother) turned 90. My mom is standing right behind my grandma in the center. Can you spot me? I am behind my mom to her left, with bangs. I was 18 then. My father is seated in the second row, first one on the right.
Below is my father. He passed away in 1996. I miss him so much, He had such a good sense of humor and he made us laugh a lot.
Below is a picture taken in Europe when my sisters and I went on a pilgrimage with mama and papa in 1993. This was the last time we were able to travel with my father. They went back to the Philippines right after the pilgrimage because my dad was requested to take care of some family business (he was a lawyer). While there, he had a stroke, became comatose for 3 years until his death. They've been married for 60 years by then. About a few months before his death, my mom also had a stroke. I think it was God's way of preparing her for his death because her short term memory was affected and she forgets anything that just happened, so she did not feel his death that badly.
My mom never really took care of us as babies. We had nannies. The first baby that she really took care of is my son Jed. For that reason, she has been very close to him. When she had a stroke, I took Jed with me to the Philippines and we went straight to the hospital. She could not recognize anybody but when she saw Jed, her eyes just sparked and she had the biggest smile. She recognized him. For that reason, I left him there for 6 months to stay with her and she recovered. Although her health completely recovered, her memory was never the same.
Below is a picture taken on my mom's 86th birthday. I still lived in Florida then. We had a family reunion. My sisters flew to Florida. My 2 brothers already live there too. This was taken in my yard. She used to live permanently with me because I had my nephew who also lived with me then, to help take care of her. Today, she gets rotated among us 5 brothers and sisters in 4 different states.
Christmas of the same year at my FL home.
My mom's 87th birthday with all her children, 3 girls and 2 boys.
Again, my sisters flew to Florida to join us celebrate it.
Christmas of the same year at my house.
For her 90th birthday, we had a real big reunion in Orlando. We registered at Ginny's Reunion Resort and rented condos there to accomodate everyone, all my brothers and sisters and our children and their children attended. Ma has 19 great grandchildren now.
This was taken last year in New Orleans. Ma loves to go on trips, never gets tired even after a long driving. She just enjoys the sceneries and never sleeps in the vehicle. At times after driving for more than 10 hours and as soon as we enter the house, she will ask where we are going next, lol .
She was with me here in MS when she turned 92 and I had a birthday party for her. My friend Debjani's birthday is 2 days before ma's so I threw a joined party for them. Prior to that, she had an accident here. She fell from a truck, trying to get down all by herself while I was in a store picking up a table. She said she had to go to the bathroom. I found her in a pool of blood on the pavement. She cut her head and it would not stop bleeding. I applied pressure on the cut of her head all the way home. We took her to a local hospital and the CT scan showed a hematoma. The ambulance had to transport her to Jackson because we have no neuro surgeon here and the ER doctor thought she might require a brain surgery. My husband sewed the wound up before she was taken. Then, he told me to prepare myself because she might not make it because her head was bleeding profusely and the hospital is 2.5 hours drive away. I have never been so scared in my life. I cried and prayed all the way to the hospital and called all my brothers, sisters and children to pray along with me.
She came home after 3 days, only to collapse again after about 2 weeks because of a very low BP. She was admitted to the hospital and the cardiologist discontinued her BP meds. Now, the only medicine she is taking is a low dose Cholesterol pill and some vitamins and she is looking really good and healthy.
This is one of her latest photos. I took it just a few weeks ago on June 29th, at my nephew (her oldest grandchild) and his wife's 25th wedding anniversary. Doesn't she look good? I hope I inherit her skin. She hardly has any wrinkles. It must have been the facial moisturizers that she would always asked us to send her when she was still in the Philippines.
Today, July 24th, she turns 94 but we celebrated it here in Waukegan, Illinois on the 22nd.
Happy Birthday, mama! I hope you have many, many, many, many more birthdays to come.
This was the invitation that my daughter created for my sister Fe, who hosted it.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading about my mother. I hope it did not bore you. I did not mean to make it this long but I just have so much to say about her.
I would like to link with
(Thanks for hosting, ladies!)
Bunny Jean's Bunny Hop
Honey's Potpourri Friday at
The Tablescaper's Seasonal Sunday
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