I attended my uncle’s 50th Wedding Anniversary last Saturday, May 23, 2009. They renewed their marriage vows at the Our Lady of Mercy, at Novaliches, Q.C. I was hesitant to attend the event for I was thinking we are not that close and I don’t have a “special reason to be there”. But since I was available and would meet with relatives I have not seen for a very long time I accompanied my parents to the event. My uncle Liling is my mother’s brother and my father stood as their primary sponsor.
Celebrating a golden wedding anniversary is a momentous event, not everyone would have the opportunity to celebrate it. I remember my grandparents having plans to celebrate it but my grandfather died a few months before they can even start planning.
Being a guest on a grand event like this I realize is a privilege, you can’t help but feel the triumph and gratefulness they felt toward God that they we still able to celebrate they love after fifty years. The guests were composed of family (all extended family was required to attend) and friends from childhood to present.
My Uncle Liling and Auntie Helen were married at the age of 17, in a civil wedding ceremony fifty years ago and had eight children. I remember when I was a child visiting them in a small room they rented under a big house in Sampaloc, Manila. My uncle worked in Saudi as an OFW as long as I remember until he retired a few years ago. At present they live in a big house in Caloocan City and was blessed with more that twenty grandchildren and great grandchildren.
I come to realize how precious love is, how love that stood the test of time is an achievement worked on continuously by both partners. My uncle’s and auntie’s marriage withstood so much from poverty, long distance relationship, the great responsibility to bring up eight children and being triumphant in the end.
Congratulations Liling and Helen Penollar!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to witness a love so true and strong. Thank you for sharing with us your triumphs.
Thank you for inspiring us in these times were love seems to be equated with lust and marriage relegated to be just a piece of paper.
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