I got a phone call from a very dear classmate from elementary to high school, @Natimarie Pagayucan, who will be driving to LAX with her grandchildren to pick up Nati’s son-in-law. Drawback, his flight got delayed an hour. Yet, somehow we managed to get to the restaurant at 815pm.
With constant exchanges of texts and a willingness to get together, we had perfect timing and landed a table for 6. We had a sweet waitress and she smiled each time I said thank you in Korean – kamsamidah!
We ate galbi, dumpling soup, kimchi/pork/tofu soup, bibimbap, and chicken teriyaki, a heaping serving that no matter how Natimarie ate, it was still quite a mound of hefty serving.
Goodwill and generosity got paired as twins in our table. The best part, the 2 sisters texted their brother, Patrick who drove all the way from Northridge.
When Patrick arrived, they hugged and were all smiles and the youngest sat on her dad’s lap as Patrick hurriedly ate before all went to a dessert place, 6 blocks away.
Family and friends matter, and even distance become shorter to travel when there’s love and inner will to be with one another. Thank you my dear classmate, your family brought us joy!
That morning, my article on Susana Reyes was published, a path finding Commissioner working for the common good in Asian Journal. What a beautiful day and night, thank you dear God for your blessings, and thank you dear kaklase for making the trip and the treat!
P.S. Years ago, I spent an afternoon and evening with Natimarie Pagayucan and her grandchildren, along with my other elementary and high school classmates. It was early when we got to Oceanside. It turned out to be a great day of being at the seashore and catching the music of a band that the grandchildren loved. Mind you, my classmate lives in Chicago, but she flies to Temecula, and I travel from LA, another travels from Missiin Viejo and another from Oxeanside. Yet with the disparate zones, we managed to make distances irrelevant by spending the day and an overnight.
That day, I asked: Nati, I noticed you are so generous with your grandchildren. Why is that? Little did I know, as I was not a grandma yet. She quickly responded:”Because I am not rich and I cannot leave them monies, I can only leave them memories.” Bingo! That was a bell rung inside me, it is beyond monies, it is about LOVE, the full measure of life’s worth.
Nati’s lesson to me: Maximize Love! Avery, her granddaughter made me a necklace with a beautiful heart dangling!
Will you not go to bed with a heart filled with love?