Back in the Philippines '09
As you know from previous posts, Elijah was laid to rest on Thursday January 22 at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cypress, California.
The day after, we went and visited his grave. As expected, a bunch of flowers were scattered all over the ground. There was a basket there with 4 small pots of roses with white flowers. Rach picked it up, took the pots out of the basket, laid them on the ground and threw the basket into a trash container by the street.
When we came back Saturday, Rach told us the basket was back with flowers in it, the same ones which were on the ground the day before. We just assumed that her Mom, Rose fished it out of the trash and used it to put the flowers inside. When we talked with Rose we were surprised to hear her say she didn't do it. So we figured it was the cemetery staff who did it but that wouldn't make sense because they wouldn't know whose grave it came from because there were flowers on several nearby graves. Anyway..
Since the service was attended by immediate relatives and a selected group of Eph and Rach's close friends, a bunch of Rach's relatives came to Long Beach Friday and we all had lunch there.
Monday, Jan 26, Dan picked us up from La Mirada and took us to LAX for our 10:50 pm flight back to the Philippines. Rach and Eph came while were checking in and we had dinner at McDonald's afterwards.
Our flight was pretty smooth. I had the chance to watch two movies, The Outlander and another one which I can't recall at the moment, in EVA Air's spacious Boeing 777-300. After the 14 hour flight, we stopped over at Taiwan Tao Yuan International Airport for about 3 hours or so and then we're off again to the last leg of the trip to the Philippines, a couple of hours to Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport. We landed at 11:45 am Wednesday, Jan 28.
Mike and Ayrin were already waiting outside the terminal when we got out with our luggage. With a lunch break at an NLEx rest stop, it was almost 3 pm when we arrived in Greenfields. On the way, I sent Robert a text message asking about Kuya Al. He text'd back saying he passed away at 4:30 that morning.
Sister Gay and Indo were anxiously waiting for us. Indo looked like he gained weight!
Thursday, we went to our first invite. It's lunch for a friend's birthday at St. Jude Subdivision. Friday, we visited Alice's mom at Makabali Hospital. When we got there she just came out of the ICU. We then went to SM for some much needed groceries.
Saturday we went to Cavite City for Kuya Al's funeral. We hired a driver since I wasn't familiar with Cavite. We left at around 6:30 in the morning, per Robert's instructions and directions. It took us about three hours to get there asking for directions several times on the way. Robert's sisters Mila, Tessie and Connie were all there and so was Pareng Jun. We arrived early enough to spend some quality time with them, we even had a light lunch at the funeral parlor. After lunch, Kuya Al's remains were taken to a nearby church for a mass and memorial service. His only daughter Coco couldn't make it. She's in New York and she had her baby a few days ago and she sent a letter eulogizing her Dad and it was read by two of her college friends. After the mass, officiated by four priests, we followed the funeral car to the cemetery. Kuya Al and his wife Ate Cora are loved by the church for all the services he's done for them. We said goodbye to the family promising to get together before they all leave for the US.
When Robert came back from Cavite we had a chance to drop by the Makabali Hospital in which Alice's Mom was confined.
Today, Sunday is our second invite - Erika's birthday party here in Baliti. Good for Indo, we'll be walking a lot to get rid of some of this weight!
The day after, we went and visited his grave. As expected, a bunch of flowers were scattered all over the ground. There was a basket there with 4 small pots of roses with white flowers. Rach picked it up, took the pots out of the basket, laid them on the ground and threw the basket into a trash container by the street.
When we came back Saturday, Rach told us the basket was back with flowers in it, the same ones which were on the ground the day before. We just assumed that her Mom, Rose fished it out of the trash and used it to put the flowers inside. When we talked with Rose we were surprised to hear her say she didn't do it. So we figured it was the cemetery staff who did it but that wouldn't make sense because they wouldn't know whose grave it came from because there were flowers on several nearby graves. Anyway..
Since the service was attended by immediate relatives and a selected group of Eph and Rach's close friends, a bunch of Rach's relatives came to Long Beach Friday and we all had lunch there.
Monday, Jan 26, Dan picked us up from La Mirada and took us to LAX for our 10:50 pm flight back to the Philippines. Rach and Eph came while were checking in and we had dinner at McDonald's afterwards.
Our flight was pretty smooth. I had the chance to watch two movies, The Outlander and another one which I can't recall at the moment, in EVA Air's spacious Boeing 777-300. After the 14 hour flight, we stopped over at Taiwan Tao Yuan International Airport for about 3 hours or so and then we're off again to the last leg of the trip to the Philippines, a couple of hours to Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport. We landed at 11:45 am Wednesday, Jan 28.
Mike and Ayrin were already waiting outside the terminal when we got out with our luggage. With a lunch break at an NLEx rest stop, it was almost 3 pm when we arrived in Greenfields. On the way, I sent Robert a text message asking about Kuya Al. He text'd back saying he passed away at 4:30 that morning.
Sister Gay and Indo were anxiously waiting for us. Indo looked like he gained weight!
Thursday, we went to our first invite. It's lunch for a friend's birthday at St. Jude Subdivision. Friday, we visited Alice's mom at Makabali Hospital. When we got there she just came out of the ICU. We then went to SM for some much needed groceries.
Saturday we went to Cavite City for Kuya Al's funeral. We hired a driver since I wasn't familiar with Cavite. We left at around 6:30 in the morning, per Robert's instructions and directions. It took us about three hours to get there asking for directions several times on the way. Robert's sisters Mila, Tessie and Connie were all there and so was Pareng Jun. We arrived early enough to spend some quality time with them, we even had a light lunch at the funeral parlor. After lunch, Kuya Al's remains were taken to a nearby church for a mass and memorial service. His only daughter Coco couldn't make it. She's in New York and she had her baby a few days ago and she sent a letter eulogizing her Dad and it was read by two of her college friends. After the mass, officiated by four priests, we followed the funeral car to the cemetery. Kuya Al and his wife Ate Cora are loved by the church for all the services he's done for them. We said goodbye to the family promising to get together before they all leave for the US.
When Robert came back from Cavite we had a chance to drop by the Makabali Hospital in which Alice's Mom was confined.
Today, Sunday is our second invite - Erika's birthday party here in Baliti. Good for Indo, we'll be walking a lot to get rid of some of this weight!
posted by reyjay @ 2:12 PM
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