On August 15, we celebrate one of the most joyful of our liturgical Solemnities – the Assumption of our Blessed Virgin Mary. In a few weeks time, will be Her birthday celebration (September 8). A few weeks ago too, my family celebrated the 71st birthday of my mother, Luz Villaroman. Allow me to deviate from pastoral exhortation, and with this personal article, to remember and honor the love and sacrifices of our Blessed Mother Mary, by way of honoring the love and sacrifices of my Mama Luz.
It is no longer there, but my mind vividly remembers that red and rusty canopied swing we used to have in our old backyard in Novaliches where I and my six siblings grew up as kids. This one had bench seats facing each other, rested on a floor that was cleverly hinged unto sturdy parallel roof beams, swinging back and forth, back and forth, by the inertia of its guests. A lot of our childhood memories were formed playing in that swing – an ordinary, rickety swing. One afternoon, when I was seven, my mom told us children an incredible story that would change forever the way we would remember that swing, and remember our mother.
That was the summer day we kids were huddled around Mama in wonder, eyes twinkling, mouths open and jaws to the floor, as the words from my mom’s story wafted like heavenly stardust around us. She told us for the first time that way before we kids were born, she used to live in the clouds – the youngest among beautiful “fairy angel” sisters, each with a pair of long, detachable silver feathered- wings. According to her, one day, she was able to convince her sister angel fairies to sneak out and fly down to a beautiful hidden lake on earth so that they can swim and play before the sun retreated. Arriving in the lake, they each removed their pair of long silver-feathered wings and rested these on a secluded mound just behind the trees. A young handsome man, who arrived unnoticed in the lake to fish, chanced upon them wading in the lake, and secretly watched, fascinated by the beauty and grace of the youngest fairy, supposedly our mom-to-be. He hides the shortest pair of wings belonging to the youngest, prettiest one. As evening approached, the angel fairies hear the angry voice of their father booming from the clouds. He is worried and anxious, looking for his fairy angel daughters who left without permission. Back in the lake, the elder sisters were crying, as they told the youngest, “Sorry, we have looked everywhere and could not find your wings. You cannot fly back to the clouds with us. Father is waiting. We have to go and leave you now.” And off they flew, leaving her stranded alone on earth.
The young man, who was spying all along, comes out and introduces himself. He is kind and helpful to her, but does not admit he hid her wings, for he has fallen in love with her, and wanted her to stay on earth. He helps her to be adopted by a family, so she can study in school. Eventually, the young man courts her and becomes her boyfriend. After graduating from the MAPUA Institute, they marry and are blessed with seven beautiful children. According to my mom, the swift passing of all these earthly events made her almost totally forget about her real identity and her true home in the clouds.
Mama’s story-telling continued, fast-forwarding us to a whirlwind ten years, many cycles of challenges, celebrations, and calm typical of families. Seven children growing fast, tuition fee loans, music and tennis lessons, unending refrigerator-posted bills. She told us of this special morning, when we kids were in school, and our Papa was at work, and she was home alone, busy fixing linen, laundry, and litter around the house. Stepping out into our Novaliches backyard to look for our youngest brother’s lost mini basketball, she stood on a garden chair to stretch and take a peek at the top of the swing’s roof. She was startled at what she saw. Lo and behold, there it was on the roof, the long silver-feathered wings she had been looking for that fateful day, back at the lake, ten years ago! She ran her fingers through the silver feathers, wore the wings, and thought and believed again, “I am a fairy angel, and I could fly back to my home in the clouds, right now!”
But faces of her children and husband filled her mind, and her heart burst in words, “I love them so much. Because of them this house is my home now. This is my life!” She hurriedly pulled the wings from the red swing’s roof, started a fire, and set the wings burning, until these were ashes and soot.
That evening, my Mama would continue narrating, Papa supposedly discerned in her eyes an uncertain mix of nostalgia and joy. Queried about this, she said, “It’s nothing, I just had an interesting day.” That early evening too, one of her sons, looking out the window at the fluffy tangerine-tinted clouds, would ask her, “Mama, you think we can go and fly and live there in the sky?” Mama remembers saying, ” Maybe someday son. The clouds are nice, but today, you are here with me, God’s precious gift, right here in our home. You make this the best place in the world for me! I will never choose to be anywhere else.”
Today, I am old enough to know Mama was never a winged fairy, as clearly as my sons Dave and Sam know where Santa really got all the gifts they received in past Christmases. But if my mom was really one, we seven children are certain, she will not think a second to burn her wings for us. There is a lot of truth in her story about choosing to give up her flight. She actually did. Graduating with honors in Chemical Engineering, she traded the chance to earn big by innovating test tube solutions for the world, so that she can wake up at dawn to mix milk bottles and fix “baon” for seven hungry children. She used to be a potential PhD professor, who never became one because she deliberately chose to become the most patient and loving tutor to her seven sons and daughters. Today, we raise our own families, as parents ourselves, knowing by Mama and Papa’s example how and what it is like to sacrifice joyfully so that our own children will grow to their fullest potential.
My Mama Luz might not be a fairy, but to us her children, she is still the most beautiful angel in the whole world. What makes her the most beautiful among angels, you may ask? Others have beautiful wings. She has none. She gave up hers so that all seven children can grow wings and soar. That makes you so beautiful, Mama. Belated honoring and Happy Birthday!
Let us watch out for and listen to the stories of mothers. Many of these may sound incredible, but listen with your heart, and find these stories very true! Like the story of this other mother who grew up an orphan, yet could love her sons so greatly with the love she never knew as a kid, only to be surprised with the miracle of God allowing her to meet and embrace her father for the first time in 45 years! (that’s a story for another time). But the most “incredible but true” Mother of all Mother stories, your and my all-time favorite is this: “When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18). The story of a virgin mother, having no relations with a man, conceiving with the Holy Spirit, and giving birth to the Savior of the world so that you and I can experience what Fullness and Full Armour is truly all about!
Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother Mary from Couples for Christ!
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