The Brave and Tender Mother
She was widowed at 35. Papa died a sudden death at 39, leaving behind a wife saddled with the care of nine children (the oldest was 16, the youngest, 8 months). There were offers of adoption ("How can you take care of all these children?" prospective guardians asked). She knew no work, spoiled by a husband who believed the yard went on forever. But the true mother hen that she was, she gathered all under her wings and faced the days of hardships that lay ahead. Bravely and singlehandedly. She worked as she never did in her life, but she remained the first teacher to her children. No child of hers ever remembered a day of sickness when she was not around with her healing presence. Mama may have been in tatters, but she held court in our lives. She never married again (though at 35 she was as beautiful as she was on her wedding day).
On the day a cardiac arrest claimed her, as she prayed her last rosary ever, she showed no pain, only the expression of immeasurable sadness that went with knowing it was goodbye. She was 75.
To the memory of all the departed mothers, and to the living ones: HAPPY MOTHER'S Day! -by Roland Rivera
(Mama's likeness in terracotta, by Jojo Sescon)