we all have stories to tell, earth shaking, extra ordinary or just plain and simple. our lives, ordinary or exemplary, our life story should be told to those who are willing to listen ;)
well mine is in between. born poor because of the deceitfulness of bad humans. my grandparents own a sizable land but my grandparents were victims of a scam who persuaded them to sell their property for the land of promise in mindanao then which turned out to be an illusion. this made my dad and his siblings to scramble for life and make it on their own...
but God is good, i was sent by my kind hearted, rich, spanish virgin mary look alike benefactor to UST for my nursing degree. i was able to navigate the hardships of college working as a maid because my aunt was their cook. i helped mop the floor, wash the dishes, prepare the things that my aunt needed to cook and also clean our masters' quarters at the same time going to nursing school. up to this day i wonder why i wasn't kicked out... pre-nursing we started with 21 sections with 50 students each but in our internship 9 sections were just left to continue. UST is pretty hard i tell you, maybe bec. of my being a valedictorian and i graduated top in that honor roll in HS with 200 students, maybe i was well equipped to weather the storm of nursing school... brain wise ;)
i worked as an operating room nurse for about a year and a half and luckily when maxine gurgold, the director of nursing at mt. carmel mercy hospital here in the U.S. went to the philippines and stayed at the manila hotel and interviewed hundreds of nurses applicants there, i was one of the only 6 who were given the job to come here in the U.S.to work in this hospital. several years later the sisters of mercy sold this facility to my current employer. i was very lucky that i'd never forgotten this enormous blessing in my life. i was only 26 years old then and i was U.S. bound to work for the richest and the most powerful country on earth which president Obama said during his very last state of the union address and that no other country could even come close in comparison. plus the only super power to boot. my life made a dramatic shift for the better after that. God is always good. if you work hard you can do it with God's grace. no help from wealthy parents for i don't have one. only from the mercy of our most powerful and loving God above :)
as life rolls it makes changes. my family's life was profoundly changed last year when my husband of almost 3 decades passed away but we are determined to move on in spite of the sadness and the grief. we will continue to live our lives showing more of our sunny disposition and our brighter outlook of life. things happen and only God knows the reason why but that's life. one by one we will all bid our goodbyes to this earth sooner or later. tomorrow the sun will shine again and at night the moon will come out and so of the billions of stars twinkling up in the sky. we look up and make a wish and dream of a better life ahead of not only for us but of other families as well with husbands or without. life only happens but once. we will ride its wagon until the end. until God decides to take us back like mother angelica. EWTN is here to stay, her creation. a remarkable nun that for the love of Jesus she was inspired to dream big, to give big and to have lived bigger than life. farewell dear mother. you were an extra ordinary human being who deserves to be a saint someday... like mother theresa...
above's remarkable art is by john singer sargent...thank you :)
