Mommy Eli

Mommy Eli with her oldest granddaughter and beloved great grandchildren

Mommy and Sugar, her eldest son

87 going 88!  double infinity!

Her life is well-spent on meticulous cleanliness and knock-out sense of order.
She could be immovably right on politics, world events, people, weather, religion and history! Her collection of books (she read all of them) is astonishingly BIG SCALE.

She loves beautiful things and has the extraordinary ability to turn a small space into a palace,  and a wide area into a sanctuary.  She is the ultimate manager and CEO.  With 11 pregnancies and 8 children, she is a SUPERMOM!  In her youth, she was a celebrated beauty and brains a.k.a. "Supladang Ely" written on electric posts or carved out on trees, masterminded by suitors and admirers who never got to the first base.  

She believes in chocolates as panacea for moody dispositions and if you are a "yummymummy", (is that how they call alternative moms?) you are in for a good sermon on why children should have a dose of chocolates! She has a cupboard full of nuts and candies,  jellies, cookies and chocolates just for all her great grandchildren.  She loves them tremendously that the sight of them would make her smile in spite of unbearable pain!  

I have lost my own mother, Mary to cancer 28 years ago.  She was only 67.  Having witnessed Ely's long and healthy life, I think I will know how to live beyond 80.  Still not sure though if I want it.

I would not have known and appreciated myself better had I been her all time favorite, but I would like to believe that I.AM. now.  Oh I love her when she loves me!



 She surprised me with a love that only my mother could give, the last time I was sick.  She came up to Antipolo very often to bring food she cooked in spite of the inconvenience of travel, only to cheer me up.  She was worried for me!  She even endured an excruciatingly long pray-over that made her rheumatic arm shake while holding her hand over my head.  That and Sister Bernadette's act paved way for a miracle because of a formidable faith.

So why do I write this?  It is because I do not want to forget anything that should be remembered.  Every person's life that we witness is like a book of knowledge and wisdom. My second mother, Eli, who braves living life this long, has been such a blessing to us, to me.  Such difference our parents make when they stand with their trembling and aching knees as parents for as long as they can hold, to show us strength when they are weak and to give us answers to questions that only they could provide.  They hold the key to our existence and no matter how long we have lived, we will always be our parents' sons and daughters and she, the light and glue of the family. So Mighty Bond Mommy, cheers to more years!!

Long live Eli!