09.28.10
Posted in family stuff at 2:49 am by Administrator
So I’m having trouble sleeping tonight “again,” sigh. So this time instead of just tossing and turning, I decided to get up and find something to do. I ended up here on the computer, so might as well add a few more pics. These are oldies, but goodies in my book. This is Mom and Dad on their honeymoon in Baguio, Philippines, 1957.
This is a picture of Mom with her girlfriends. Mom is on the far right of the pic (Basically the front of the line). I love her dress.
Then the three of us girls came along. Here we are with Dad in Toronto. I’m in the middle, heheheh.
I like this pic, too. I’m on Dad’s lap, again. 
Again, in Toronto. Check out the cars in the back. . .
Here’s Mom and Dad in SaoPaulo, Brazil in 1971. Check out Mom’s big hair do, heheheh. But hey, that was the style back then.
And this was the family traveling to Brazil. We took Pan Am. Remember when they were still in business? I still remember those white boots! We’ve got a few more pics of us traveling in those white boots. I’m the one in the yellow dress next to Mom.
And here’s a picture in Brazil with me and Dad. One of Dad’s coworkers owned a ranch and invited us over for the weekend. They had lots of horses that they let us ride.
Well, okay we’ve got tons more pictures, so I’d better quit for now and try to get some shut eye. Tomorrow Mom’s got some shopping to do, so I’d better be rested to be a good companion.
Marlakins
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09.18.10
Posted in family stuff, felt projects, hobbies at 2:55 pm by Administrator
Today I wanted to share some pics of Mom and Dad when they were younger, but I don’t have those pictures on this computer, so that will have to be another post. So today I’ll just share more about the memorial/reception.
Aside from the slide show at Dad’s memorial, there was also some live music. There was a trio and my uncle who performed at the memorial, but a couple guitarists and my uncle who also sang at the reception. The songs I tended to like the most because it reminded me so much of Dad were the Filipino songs. In particular, my uncle sang “Dahil Sayo,” which translated means, “Because of You.” The rest of the words are, “Because of you, life is worth living.” Such a sweet song. To hear this song, here’s a version of it on YouTube. It has both English and Tagalog. Just click here.
The other song my uncle sang for my mom was, “Hindi Kita Malimot.” Translated it means “I can’t forget you.” I wasn’t able to find a good version to share online at the moment.
For the flower arrangements on the tables, I cross stitched a bunch of little pillows.
They each had different designs, but all had “Marcos 1931-2010.” My first inspiration for designs came from a cross stitch book I checked out from the library called 2001 Cross Stitch Designs. But as usual, I altered them, then later made my own designs by the time I got to the last ones. Here’s what they looked like on the center table flowers.
Each flower arrangement was slightly different.
This is one pillow of my own design and also one of my favorites.
And here’s another of my designs that I liked but got a bit covered up.
Well, I could go on with showing each and every one of them, heheh, but I think you get the gist. The florist made 12 center piece arrangements because we were only expecting 120 people (10 at each table), but I made 14 pillows just for good measure. All the pillows on the tables got taken by the guests. So I plan to make more for the year gathering come July 2011. This time I want to incorporate more embroidery stitches, and Mom wants me to include the full date of Dad’s birth and death. So I’ve got some work to do for a little while.
Today I got to join my knitting group again for the first time since Dad passed. It was nice to see that gals again. Slowly but surely I suppose life should come back. Next Saturday I hope to join my Spinning group again as well. My sister’s and I are still rotating so that at least one of us will be with Mom 24/7. Life is tighter that way, but that’s what family is all about. We’ll just have to adjust our lives this way, and I’ll have to focus on making more good memories.
Marlakins
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09.14.10
Posted in family stuff at 10:07 pm by Administrator
We’ve taken a lot of pictures through this whole ordeal with Dad. Since we’ve been using several cameras and downloading them on different computers, I don’t have the whole selection from which to choose to share. But I do have some. Here’s the guest signing table at Dad’s reception.
We had the reception at the Westin in Pasadena. I do have to hand it to the staff that they handled our group very well. More people showed up than expected, and the hotel accommodated for the extra. Granted we ran out of salmon, but they had chicken for back up.
Here’s a pic of when it was a bit chaotic as more people showed up than expected and there weren’t yet enough seats. There were people standing by the door inside the room and out. The hotel was able to set up a couple more tables in the room, but the rest of the overflow ended up on the patio just outside.
My sisters and I prepared a slide show of our dad’s life. We accompanied the slides with music that we remember dad listening to when we were kids. It was fun to listen to all those old songs again, although a bit sad, too, but when we finally got around to getting our food some old fun songs came on and gave us a smile. My brother-in-law saw us three dancing to it, and took this pic. Uh, it was so hectic that I don’t think any of us had a chance to freshen up since we left the house, so excuse the disheveled or lack of makeup looks, heheh.
Here’s a pic of me with the wives of a couple of my blood donors.
And here’s a pic of me with two of my best platelet donors! I owe them my life.
Here’s a pic of my boys dressed in their barongs (traditional Filipino wear).
And finally a pic of me with my boys at the tail end of the reception.
It was a long, busy day, but we were glad that so many people came out to pay their respects to my dad and mom. My mom is still writing thank you cards to everyone who came and sent cards and donations. We were really overwhelmed with the outpouring. It’s so nice to know that many people loved Dad.
Marlakins
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09.08.10
Posted in family stuff at 6:51 pm by Administrator
The 40th day prayer gathering for my dad took place last Monday. It seems to be a Filipino thing where it’s believed that at the 40th day Dad’s spirit goes up to heaven. After Dad passed, there was so much to do from getting things settled with the hospital, funeral home, flying him back, and then the customary gatherings like the 9 days prayer and eating, then the additional gatherings from his other friends, then the memorial service and reception, then the 40 day prayer, etc. It has kept us all busy, but now it’s done, and I think we all (including Mom) have given a sigh of relief that things that Mom felt was necessary to do was done and it all went well.
The last of the relatives left yesterday. So, in addition to all the other stuff mentioned above, we were also kept busy with invites from other relatives who wanted to see the ones visiting. So that meant more gatherings and more food. Boy am I stuffed. . . Plus since some of them had not been here for a while, there was a little sightseeing squeezed into the calendar. But all that is now passed. Today has been relatively quiet aside from a few errands. I feel wiped out and my sleep pattern is all messed up again. . . The weather has also changed drastically today–cold and gloomy. . . wah. Now to work on all the thank you notes and sort all the pictures to distribute to those who want them. What I’m finding is that since we used different cameras, the computer saves them with different extension. And wouldn’t you know it that for the applications I want for ordering pics, I need to convert them all to JPEG. Oye. So I can see I’ll be busy for a while more. But at least our pace can slow down a bit and Mom can have more time for herself. We have some ideas lined up for her if she wants them. And I’m seeing that just the normal activities of the life will keep us busy. For instance just this month birthdays are rolling around. . . And just a lot of other things that need doing will also keep us busy.
I guess this wasn’t much of a post, but rather a sigh of relief post for me. The pressing things got done. The only thing left we have about a year to prepare for, so that’s a relief. But I just heard my Mom on the phone confirming that my aunt and uncle will also make arrangements to meet in the Philippines on the year gathering. . . oh, oh. Maybe we won’t relax as much as I thought. . .
Mom has Dad’s urn at home. Maybe I’ll take a pic of it later. She had it downstairs for a while during all the gatherings, but now it’s up in her room arranged with flowers and pictures. I’ll try to share more pics when I get them organized. For now, here’s a pic of Dad’s urn when we took it up to see Mount Rushmore.
Here we are at Mount Rushmore with Mom holding Dad’s urn. A nice gentleman was kind enough to take this pic of us.
And this was a nice saying that the mortuary had just outside of their building.
Thanks, Dad, for the wonderful life and all the great memories!
Love,
Marlakins
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