Aging

 Growing old is inevitable. There is no let up. A person, upon reaching 40, begins to develop far sightedness. The once good eyes get easily tired and are needing of reading glasses. When I reached  40, I sincerely thought, maybe I would be exempted, but no. There is no exemption. After 50; most women undergo menopausal. It takes about three years I think to totally lost your female hormones. Symptoms vary from physical to physiological and mental. Drinking glasses of tofu milk everyday helped me a lot in alleviating my physical and emotional discomforts, but then my uric acid began to shoot up too. I had to slowly temper my tofu. At 60, joints and back pains are common occurrences, not to mention cataracts develop too at 60. And at 70, I think major illnesses happen. I am horribly frighten. I celebrated my 70th birthday last November 2021, wouldn’t I be scared?! I have an 81 year old husband to care for. Lord please slow down our aging process. I pray to God to spare me from major sicknesses, diseases and illnesses. Please help O Lord. Life is not easy but thank you for the gift of life and good health and safety, specially during this time of pandemic. Keep me and all my love ones, strong and healthy, out of harm and out of danger please. Continue to love us Lord. Thank you.

Marcelino Pan y Vino

Marcelino Pan y Vino is the title of an old old movie. It was my sister Helen’s (May her soul Rest In Peace) and mine first miraculously, kind of religious movie. We were very young and we watched it at the Lyric theater, a walking distance cinema that played English films in Cotabato City. This movie house had long been gone since we were teens. It think it was razed by a big fire. But young though we were, the movie made a very strong impression on us. We never forgot the title of the film, nor the little boy who secretly gave bread and wine daily to a poor pitiful suffering man, whom he uncovered in the monastery church attic. I even remembered the boy died at the end of the story. However many of the film’s other scenarios and circumstances I forgot already. 

Some three or four years ago, my late sister Helen acquired a television gadget for old movies. She invited us siblings to watch old movies with her. We had date dinner and old movie nights at her home. We tried at times searching for this particular film, but sadly we were not able to do so. Maybe it was just too old, or wasn’t really that popular. 

Anyway, yesterday November 12, I happened to see on Facebook, an offering to watch a movie presentation of Marcelino Pan y Vino in U tube. I did not let this chance passed. I had to watch this. Maybe my guardian Angel was helping me, or Helen was helping me too since I still continue to grieve for her. The movie however was in full Spanish, with no English translation. But I had to see this again. So I did. This was a movie taken in Mexico. The baby Marcelino was left at the doorstep of the monastery. He grew up with the priests along side with his neighbors the Mexicans rebels or bandidos. There are other scenarios of other people’s lives in the story but I just wanted to watch the miraculous part where he met Jesus. To make a long story short, Marcelino was such a precocious child at five. He was loved by everybody. He and his friend Iluterio were forbidden to go to the monastery attic because it was a run down place and storage of many church’s old and unused things. Then Iluterio died, from gunshot wound during a raid by the Mexican troops. Long after, Marcelino playfully, imagining himself playing with his friend, he went up to the attic by himself and accidentally uncovered the crucified statue of Jesus Christ. He got scared but went back again. He thought the man was a poor hungry stranger, and so offered him bread from the dining hall and wine from the sacristy. The man thanked him and talked to him. Lastly, to end the story, Marcelino began saving his own bread from his own meal, and also the left over wine from the priests’ meal in the dining hall. At the end, the priests with much curiosity, secretly followed him.  They heard and saw Jesus talking to him. Jesus asked what Marcelino wanted, his answer was to see his mother. Jesus took him up. Then both of them vanished into thin air. 

After watching this movie, it made me think. Miracles do not happened like this. What man wishes to happen, is not how God works. God ways are different from man’s ways. 

On the other hand, it made me think about my sister Helen. I think God has taken my sister Helen up into heaven. We had not seen each other since the pandemic began. She was okay by then. Then It was like God took her away from us and she just disappeared into thin air like Marcelino. We did not get to see her again. God took her away and she just vanished from this life into eternal light. I was thinking, maybe my sister Helen wanted to comfort me by letting me watch this old old movie. It was such a coincidence that I chance to see this old film from U tube through Facebook. Thank you my guardian Angel for guiding me and thank you Helen for consoling me. 

Helen Ledesma Tansuk 1949-2021

My sister Helen L. Tansuk passed away last October 10, 2021, 71 years old; 21days short of her supposedly 72nd birthday on October 31st. She died at the Cardinal Santos Hospital from 4th stage cancer. She was hospitalized on September 27. Her son Bernard was with her all through out her two weeks ordeal. The night Helen was admitted to the hospital, she was administered her last sacrament. She had confession and communion. God was gracious to her. The eve before she passed away, although in coma, a recorded rosary prayer was done for her by those who loved her. She passed away at around 10 am on a Sunday.  She is now in the presence of our Lord. No more sickness and pain. She is survived by her sons Gary and Aileen and three grand children, Bernard and Carlo; and her siblings Imelda, Jeannette, William, Heddy, Wilson and Willie.

May her soul Rest In Peace. May perpetual light shine upon her. Amen.

Nothing Much to Write About

I have not written for few months now because there is nothing much of any good news to write about. I have been staying at home most of the time, and although I am cooped up at home, yet I am even made more busy by taking care of house repairs. I did not like to add more anxieties to mine or our lives by writing unpleasant things. I wish I can share good news but until now the pandemic has not gone away. I pray the rosary everyday for my family and love ones, for friends, and for people who hardly know me. I pray for people who are in need of prayers, and also for the holy souls of those who have passed away either from the virus or other illnesses. I pray that God will soon end this pandemic. He is a loving and kind God. He will have mercy on us. God is our only hope and our only help. 

June 2021

Last June, I was busy attending to my husband because he had a sudden attack of lower back, lumbar pain. It was so painful that Lucas could hardly walk. I quickly asked and called up his Masonic brother and orthopedic doctor, Doctor Dimaren Dimatingcal at Cotabato Regional Medical Center for help. The good brother and doctor prescribed pain medicines for him through the cellphone. I also further consulted my husband neuro doctor in Manila. With the help of the two doctors advices, I also added my own personal lumbar attack experience by binding his back and stomach with my own girdle which helped him a lot. Lucas’ lower back got better but the pain transferred to his left leg and calf and ankle. His neurosurgeon told us for Lucas to do an mri, but we were so scared to go the hospital because there were a lot of new cases of covid in Cotabato. We however make do of some home remedies like hot compress, pain balm application, reducing his high in uric acid food intake, etc etc. 

I prayed to God, I asked Mama Mary, Saint Joseph and the Angels and Saints in heaven for help. I hang on to pray on the Feast Day of the Sacred  Heart of Jesus, also during the Feast Day of  Our Mother of Perpetual Help. With the help of Jesus our Lord, and our Blessed Mother, Lucas slowly got better. I also slowly weaned him from all his pain medicines. Thank God, he is okay now. He still has a lot of issues regarding muscles and nerve maladies but his lumbar and leg pains are gone. 

Thank God for your great help! Thank you so very very much! I love you Lord for you have love us first and will always love us. Thank you.

Something Good......

I wish I could write something nice, aside from all the pandemic scares and anxiety. Anyway, let me say something good. Yes, members of the family have been vaccinated already: Roy got his moderna shot in USA. Lucas and I got our sinovac in Cotabato City. Martha had her first and second sinovac too. Emil and Suiling got their first AstraZeneca dose and so too did Tom and Angel. Marion remains unvaccinated, but she is in New Zealand. My grandchildren still have to wait for their turn, to get the vaccination for children. I really hope that more vaccines will come so that our workers can get vaccinated very soon too. Well, China sent in two millions of sinovac recently. I hope they rollout the vaccine soon and fast. In the meantime, we still continue to wear masks and observe safety and health protocols. One still needs to be careful and keeps safe. I pray to God to end this pandemic very very soon. 

Below are pictures taken during Lucas and my vaccination.

      

Lucas’ first sinovac dose on April 28, 2021.

Second sinovac shot on May 26, 2021.

Second Sinovac Dose

Yesterday, May 26, 2021, my husband and I got our second dose of Sinovac vaccine. This second time around I was not so anxious as compared to the first time, because I knew before hand the site where we were going to and also the time of my choice to get the jab. I was only apprehensive because the rollouts also included not only the second dose but also the first dose vaccers, hence there would be more people. 

Lucas and took our early lunch at 10AM and we were at the center at almost 11AM. There were few people going for vaccination at 11 o’clock. However as we arrived, we could clearly see that there were a number of people who were already vaccinated, seated, and waiting to be released. We saw Yubeng Chua, Ramon Cua, Desiree Chiong, Henry and Judith Uy etc, who were all ahead of us, seated waiting to be released. Lucas and I got through easily for our shots, but after the vaccination, I did not like to be seated in the waiting section; so I pulled two chairs separately and seated ourselves apart but nearby. Somehow the attendants sensing my apprehension, checked our blood pressure and oxygen earlier than usual. As we were monitored with normal bp and oxygen level, we were released sooner, even earlier than Yubeng and Henry and Judith Uy. After we were released, I verily thank God for giving us this opportunity to get our second dose of vaccine peacefully, and for keeping us safe in his love and safekeeping. Lord, keep us safe always.

And to add more people, Lucio and Conchita Tan, my sister-in-law Lechu and her husband Manuel, my neighbors Conchita, Sofia, Vicente Co and friends Siolan Yap, Norma Lim, Lolita Uy, etc, got their second dose of Sinovac too yesterday. I was most happy though that my sister, Jeannette Yu finally took her first dose too yesterday. I hope more people will get vaccinated, so that we can soon end the spread of the virus and the pandemic very very soon. 

O God, please help us. Thank you.