Today, we commemorated the 53th year death anniversary of my mother Mary Go Ledesma. So many things have changed since the pandemic: My sister Helen TanSuk is no longer with us. She passed away from cancer during the time of pandemic in 2021. My eldest sister Imelda Yaw is presently confined in Noli Center, a home for the Alzheimer’s since 2022 and is deteriorating fast. My sister Jeannette Yu is in Cotabato unable to attend and my younger brother Wilson is out of the country with his family.
The Ledesma siblings who partook of the family get together today were my eldest brother William and his wife Jean and his whole family including grand children, my youngest brother Willie and his wife Solan, nephews Bernard and Carlo (the children of my late sister Helen), nephew Charlton (son of my sister Jeannette) and his wife and children, and lastly my husband Lucas, my daughter Martha and myself.
Despite missing a lot of kins today, yet we respectfully continued to observe the Chinese tradition of laying offerings of food on the ancestral altar and food was as plenty for everyone to partake. We burned incense and said our personal prayers and petitions and burned gold papers for my Mama holy soul in heaven. I sent special petitions for my mother to intercede and pray for me and for Lucas and all my children and their family. But before doing all these Chinese family traditions, we first went to mass at 9am and had the mass offered for the holy soul of our parents. Food was plentiful, we all contributed to make it a sumptous lunch. The main dish was lechon, there was cha mi, sushi, fresh lumpia, fried prawns, dinuguan, pork belly, and plentiful of desserts too such as mango salad, cakes, donuts etc. After meal, we were served coffee and Puh-er tea to cleanse our palate. By the way my brother William and his wife Jean and their children were the hosts of this family affair.
