The Y Factor

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Check out www.coderedmag.com.ph/forum for new threads.

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Joey Velasco Painting Exhibit

Everyone is invited to visit the Joey Velasco Painting Exhibit at Glorietta (in between Mark's and Spencers and Woman's Department store area). Open during mall hours until Tuesday, September 30, 2008 only. Also, available during the exhibit is the 2009 Calendar featuring Joey Velasco's paintings. This exhibit is brought to you by Salesian Missions.

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My Nanay - a servant leader on her own

It would be very easy to be pissed off with Nanay. She is one who easily sees what is wrong or could be wrong in things or what needs to be improved on. At one time, when my niece reported that she got a grade of 90-something in a quiz, she quickly said, bakit hindi 100? She gets into my nerves everytime this happens with my nephews and nieces but just keeps quiet, if am able to keep it, so as not to antagonize her in front of the kids. But knowing what she had gone through, we can let it pass as just her own style of humanity in her own martyr world. She is 73, and was becoming a teenager during world war II. She started working at a young age to be able to pay for her older sister's schooling (this without my aunt's knowledge). She married a military person and raised six kids, who are all males. With my father becoming a fan liquors, she seemingly raised us on her own. One thing that I can describe her character, she is a survivor. She inspiringly exemplified this character last month. My eldest brother stayed in the US last year till June of 2007 for further law studies. During his stay there, his kidney function already dropped to 11% which should be subject to dialysis. Upon arrival in the country, first order of the day was to work on his kidney operation. My mother texted me her fears when my brother arrived but was relieved when she saw Kuya exteriorly okay. She knows that the groundworks are being prepared for Kuya's transplant and that it will require a huge sum of money. It is during this moments that you won't hear her give her own piece of mind. Whatever she is thinking or feeling, she kept it to herself. Prior to the operation, I told a friend, I wonder how our mother feels knowing that two of his sons will undergo surgery (as donor and donee). Parang ang hirap isipin kung ano ang nararamdaman ng isang ina, na may dalawa siyang isinilang sa mundo na dadaan sa operasyon. Siguro mas masakit pa iyon sa pag-aanak. Iyong emotional and psychological torture ng hiwa, hirap at iyong pag-iisip na magagamot ba talaga si Kuya. In spite of that, she stayed in the hospital. I guess, she is more at ease (if at ease is the proper term) to be beside her kids rather than far away. When the doctor visited after the operation, she just cried and told the doctor that she is a savior. It was one of the few moments that she really showed emotions as she didn't cry in our father's deathbed. She didn't show any weakness during those moments. She just revealed her own physical weakness when after the operation, she had a vacation in Pangasinan and texted me that she felt weak. It is for this reason that she will be staying in her birthplace in a week. Normally, she goes there for a day and goes back the next. When it comes to showing us the best possibilities that we can be, even if it seems to be showing discontentment, she doesn't shy away. But when it comes to thinking of her welfare over us, she would just keep quiet so as not to center the attention on her. At 73, she still thinks of others and willingly gives herself...and that is how she was surviving since her world war two days.

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