Jel Pena and Eden Faith's win heals me of my sentimentality

SALUD Famador Sabaldan bore me in her womb for that long nine months between June and until I saw the first light of day on March 7, 1958 and raise me up as her favorite child among equally treasured four sons and three daughters.

My five-year-old face was a dirty disgrace hiding under piles of marine transported coconut charcoal in a wooden boat on the way to a plantation in Calian somewhere along the beautiful coasts of Jose Abad Santos in Davao del Sur.

It was my first adventure, mission-accomplished journey as a stow-away of M/B Lais, which also bears my mother’s only love Romualdo L. Sabaldan, whose memory after his death five years earlier lingers on through the eyes of my sports analyst Marc Philips Sabaldan.

What else can my papa Romualdo do after my surprised wretched-face, blackened apparition except to have a mix emotion of restrained anger and laugh in guffaw.

Here's her favorite son again in a messy adventure landing along the coast of Calian as a surprise buddy of her husband Romualdo, who was on his way to managing the 180-hectare, 175-head cow and coconut plantation of Fernandez-Hermanos Company.

There, in the plantation house of well manicured lawns and well-tended garden of red roses, I have to learn to cook for my pa and rounded up the surrounding trees of guava for his preferred merienda just to make amends of the unplanned trip.

Five decades later, I had a hard time controlling my emotions all day long inside the intensive care unit beside my mother, who was gasping for her breath in the morning of March 20, 2013.

It was raining very hard outside when she breathed her last in the night of the same day. We know God has given us reasons to shed our tears. Death is just the beginning of life.

You have turned my mourning into dancing Lord.

After shedding all those tears alone at night and in my waking hours at dawn, a quick trip to the volleyball semis and the finals is a welcome relief showing Allia Maspiñas and the team what plyometrics are to improve on their lateral moves.

Jel Pe¤a and Nicole Frando's composure, peace and calm in the midst of a rowdy, homecourt crowd of the Tagum City National High School Gym is a soothing relief. As overall champions, the children of Davraa, Davao Region Athletic Association have lived life to the fullest in stark, unbridled competition for athletic excellence.

My emotions cleared as coach Solidad Torino sends in the strongest combination in the history of the Ateneo-DCNHS fusion starring MVP Glenda Gregg Agang, team captain Eden Faith Almonte, setter Rica Diolan and the libero Jarene Mae Salazar.

Jel Pena, Allysa Aldwin Alterado and Allia Maspi¤as complete the cast from Ateneo. Co-captain Nicole Frando was even more accurate in setting the ball to Elsa Samanion and Eden Faith in the second set. Farla Mae Amancio was brilliant in her two service aces and LJ Trinidad was at her best in the finals.

For all your sympathy and love, we say thank you to Mayor Sara Duterte, Vice Mayor Rody Duterte, councilors Edgar Ibuyan and Emmanuel Galicia, Mabel Sunga-Acosta, Sun.Star Davao, Rosal and Raphael Reyes and Sylvia S. Ingraham.

Requiem: "You Raise Me Up "by Josh Groban