Family is everything

My stay here in California is winding down.  I shall leave during the wee hours of the morning of Friday, Oct 26 with my niece Khriss and her husband, Nino. They have been fantastic hosts and it has always been like a  home away from home for me since I arrived.. There is no place I would have felt as comfortable as here in Olive St. in Orange County.

If there would have been a theme for my stay here in the US , it would be "family".  I started out with Nino and Khriss, a very young couple who is working out to start a family of their own. Then there is this family who has transitioned from a complete loving family losing a very important member of the house to cancer - Danny Dionisio, the patriarch and sole bread winner. We visited the wife, Rosita and I could feel the agony of the loss of a beloved husband.  I have witnessed the closeness this two have for each other and considering that practically all the children are married except for the youngest who is  now working and independent, I truly feel the pain of the wife being alone.

Then there is the family of in-laws, husband and wife Ogie, Baby, Kuya Ben's sister, and Keno, the couple's son.. They seem to be a family who is now very much in tune to the American way of life with Keno who has a stable job, promising to be a rich millennial soon.

Of course, my friends Rikki and Annabel,. always the true friends that they are, took time out to take me to the remarkable Getty museum. They have always been like family to me.  Thereafter, Khriss, Nino and I went to meet with my relatives, Ate Bini who played a very important role in my life  as she helped me transform into a decent human being.  Thanks to his son, Nats who invited his siblings to meet with me, I got reunited with the family. I shall always treasure the sumptuous seafood dinner they hosted but even more so the happy reminiscing we had of the past.

OnTuesday, my niece took me to the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art. Another noteworthy museum with a fantastic collection.  We met with former DLSU professor, once neighbor and friend, Becky Cajucom and her boyfriend Martin. They treated us to lunch and we had a great time checking the collection. We were all fascinated with a sculpture of a modern monkey that was supposed to look like a balloon tied up together.  Thereafter, Khriss and I went to visit Bong, a family friend who now lives in Buena Partk.  UInfortunately her husband Danny and her son were not there yet when we visited.

For my spiritual upliftment, I was surprised to be invited by a friend who is now a priest and the chaplain of Cal State University in Fullerton. Our tete a tete was very fruitful as we discussed wonderful things over another seafood dinner at Claws where he treated me.

Talk about reminiscing, nothing could compare with my reunion with elementary classmate and best friend, Cesar Chaingan.  He is the only classmate from my La Consolacion days that I have reconnected with. The perfect host that he is, we started out at the evening of Friday and ended up after midnight. Then we devoted our whole day the following day with his wife Carole joining us for lunch and dinner.  He has taken me to wonderful places and my fb account would testify to that --the Norton Museum and the Griffith Observatory among others being the highlights of my visit.. I even made a painting of the famous Suicide bridge where we went for a stroll just to get perfect shots.

On Sunday, I got reconnected with a very beautiful lady, Vanessa Lyon, once a model in the Philippines who worked with my two girls and now an upcoming Hollywood star. She is still that very sweet and down to earth woman I have known her to be.  Hopefully she would stay that way even when she has reached the pinnacle of her dreams.  We had breakfast at the Urth Cafe and we had a very nice conversation talking about the past and the future.

That afternoon, I met Gloria Pimentel Laven and her family. Whereas before it was just her and her husband John who I got to meet, this time I was welcomed to some sort of a family reunion and was able to meet her son, Alexander and his son, three year old Luca, her grandsons Adrian and his Filam girlfriend and another brother whose names escape me now, her 91 year old mother and sister, Sylvia.

So far, I had the opportunity to see how Filipino families thrive and survive the US and it pleases me that they are doing great! I can't wait to see how the others live at the other side of the country, the East Coast. In the meantime, I am eagerly awaiting my experience of witnessing my first gay wedding which shall be happening in Oregon. Another happy pairing and expecting a happy family of their own.