Whitney remembered

Photo from Time.com

Whitney Houston has influenced so much the music industry that younger generations of singers unblushingly copy her. Like Charice Pempengco.

Her sudden death the day before the Grammys keeled the music industry and left everyone grasping for explanations. She was just joining the Grammy parties in Hollywood and supposed to be part of the Grammy Awards show for her comeback in the industry.

But well, that is life. 

Whitney has been known for substance abuse and had been in and out of rehab. Her time has come.

My remembrance of Whitney was this video when she was just out for her major television appearance, fresh and with a bright future ahead. She was singing Home, one of my favorites. This was in 1985 when we just graduated high school.

Whitney, wherever you are, I hope your soul has found peace. Thank you for bringing good music to mankind. We will miss you dear.

More reading: Whitney Houston's death hits her native New Jersey hard

Snapshots from Bohol

I'm going to the place where love

And feeling good don't ever cost a thing.

Chris Daughtry

When was the last time I came home? July? And yet Bohol is still the place I know except for Tagbilaran which looks and feels too crowded.

Oh, Bohol. Yeah, this is Bohol. My Bohol.

Home for the old

I woke up at 3 in the morning today. Maybe because I am getting older. That's what old people do. Sleep early. Wake up early. But I did not sleep early.

Somewhere in this urbanized neighborhood, I can hear the chickens crowing and the birds chattering, ending in a beautiful chaotic chorus as the early morning lightened up and the lights turned off. The pigs getting alive grunting and begging for food, perhaps. I am so glad I can still sense the provinciality (is there such word?) in this part of metro Cebu. Just like home.

When Daughtry belted out Home, suddenly I miss Batuan, my true home.

I know Tatay would now be preparing the food for our pigs. Or for the chickens robbers loved to snatch when my parents are sleeping. Mama, the ever hardworker amongst us, may have prepared our food already with the thermos full of hot water ready for the coffee-hungry in the family.

The entire surroundings in Batuan would be alive by now. Just like any other town. The city morning life is so different from the province. That's what I really missed. The burning of leaves in the mornings seems so hallucinatory and refreshing as compared to the smoke the cars are giving off outside.

I would now be having my second cup of coffee as I make tambay outside and being greeted by farmers on the way to their lands, some of them with a carabao in tow. Nong Uriel, the local baker, would be offering me his pandesal. His daughter likewise would be smiling at me with her bibingka, knowing the fact that I love bibingka. And I would be buying from them.

I miss home.

We are rich

The holiday season brought us a very talkative 6-year old kid from Cavite. Innocence and amusement filled our household everyday during the holiday season.

One time she blurted out- Mayaman pala kayo Lolo, Lola! (You were rich Lolo, Lola!)

We laughed and we asked why.

Mayaman po kayo kasi may hagdan kayo. (You are rich because you have stairs.)

I never knew that a simple staircase could give meaning to a child. And she saw it as a status symbol. Now this staircase of ours is not the flamboyant type you can see in some rich man’s mansion. Our staircase is a compilation of wood slabs 6 inches wide and 24 inches long. I was suddenly conscious about it that I measured it up and counted them. They were the ugliest staircase I could find in the whole wide world.

I asked the child why the stairs made us rich. Her simple answer was- Wala po kaming ganyan. (We don’t have one at home.)

We were not rich just because we have a staircase. Yet those stairs were rich in memories of love and pain, of joy and sorrows. Looking at it, you could see it has survived time. Been polished many times to hide its deformities. Some parts have succumbed to termites and other calamities.

Many children loved playing on this staircase. Us. Our children. Our neighbors. Our nephews and nieces. Many a child got his foot sprained because of the undersized slabs. It was here that a loving and motherly love was shown to ease the sprained foot or a bruised head.

It was here when a sister sat and announced to the family that she was getting married. It was also here that she sat crying over her lost husband who died due to illness.

It was on the railings of the staircase that artworks were displayed by proud parents. It was also on those railings that a sister displayed her autographed picture of the first woman pilot of Cebu Pacific bearing a greeting for her because she worked at that same company. 

The alcoholic brother sat at those stairs not minding that the whole family was looking at him heaving a sigh full of pain and regret.

Yes, the child is right! We are rich!

Wedding at a Funeral Home? Posible!

Now this is what I call ingenuity. I know I am weird, but this couple might be considered a bit weirder. No, this is not Four Weddings and a Funeral. Yes, family and friends promised attendance. Some guests refused to attend but others come with the promise that "there would not be any caskets or corpses in the room."


Michigan couple tie the knot at funeral home

ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIP, Mich. - It generally has flowers, and a clergyman is often present, but this was a first for a local funeral home.

Jason and Rachael Storm held their wedding at Starks and Menchinger Family Funeral Home, where he is a funeral director.

Their reception, including dinner and dancing, also was held at the funeral home.

"This room is usually filled with sadness and contemplation, but today it is filled with joy and celebration," the Rev. Greg Prather said at the start of Saturday's ceremony.

Jason Storm, 24, doesn't see much difference between getting married in a church or the funeral home.

"I look at it as, if you go to a church and get married, how many caskets do you think have been rolled down that aisle?" he told The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph.

Rachael Storm, also 24, said the location did "not creep me out at all."

"I'm very accustomed to what he does. The one thing I'm very much about is being unique," she said.

Not everyone was entirely comfortable with the idea.

Rachael Storm said some invited guests initially refused to attend, but the couple assured family and friends there would not be any caskets or corpses in the room.

(The pic is not that wedding but googled from picasaweb)

I'm Coming Home

I'm staring out into the night,
Trying to hide the pain.
I'm going to the place where love
And feeling good don't ever cost a thing.
And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain.

Well I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,
So I'm going home.
Well I'm going home.

The miles are getting longer, it seems,
The closer I get to you.
I've not always been the best man or friend for you.
But your love remains true.
And I don't know why.
You always seem to give me another try.

So I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old,

Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all,
And then some you don't want.
Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all, yeah.

Oh, well I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old.
I said these places and these faces are getting old,
So I'm going home.
I'm going home.

Home by Chris Daughtry

When life begins for me, I will be going home finally. Certain events in my life happened so fast that I have forgotten the place where I belong, the place where “love has always been enough for me.” Home.

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