Saturday, July 26, 2008 Nalzaro: A tribute to a beloved mother By Bobby Nalzaro Saksi
TO anyone of you whose mother is still alive, did you ever tell her you love her? Did you ever express your love, affection and gratitude to her? If not, I think you should do it now while she is still alive because it might be too late.
Show to her your love, care, respect and concern. Tell her: Mommy, Mama, Inay o Nanay, ‘I love you.’
This is too personal, but I just want to express my feelings over my beloved mother’s demise after fighting for her life for the past couple of weeks due to diabetes complications. My beloved mother, Dorotea Galeza Nalzaro, or Nanay Doring, has finally met her creator last Wednesday night at the Zamboanga del Norte Provincial Hospital in Dipolog City. She was 83.
I could be biased, but for me Nanay Doring was the best mother in the world.
If there is a reincarnation and God will ask me: “Mr Nalzaro, you will be reincarnated and who would you want to be your mother again?” Without hesitation I would say, “Lord, I still want Nanay Doring to be my mother.”
That’s how I love her because she really took care of us her children. Despite the meager income of the family during our younger days in our hometown in Dipolog, she and my late father really took care of us and provided us with our basic needs within the family’s income. Our education was her priority. I remember her saying that we should go to school and as much as possible to obtain a degree because that was the only ‘wealth’ they could provide us. And true enough, almost all of us obtained a degree.
She believed in the saying that ‘proverty is not a hindrance to success.’ Nanay Doring was a disciplinarian but very compassionate and a religious woman. She taught us the value of honesty. She taught us to be God fearing.
She was generous. She gave food and sometimes would let our neighbors borrow money from her even if she knew some of them would not pay.
I remember when I was in high school, there was a time that she gave my ‘baon’ (school allowance) to our neighbor whose child was sick. Nanay was also actively involved in community affairs as one of the presidents of our purok in our Barangay Olingan. Almost everybody especially the young ones and even my contemporaries in our barangay called her Nanay.
When we were young, Nanay Doring, a plain housewife, juggled her time between attending to our needs and assisting our father in tilling our ricefield. She was a typical probinsiya whose main concern was to raise her children and guide them to a better future. We were 11 in the family and I am the youngest. But five of my elder brothers and sisters died when I was not yet born. My elder sister who was a teacher died in 2001 due to breast cancer.
I must admit that I felt guilty every time I saw my Nanay during my visits because nobody among us personally took care of her. We just hired a relative to be her caregiver. Although we financially supported her, I know the money we gave couldn’t compensate for her longing for us to be always at her side. But she never complained because she understood our situation.
We were away from her because of our respective professional calling.
The last time I was at her side was three weeks ago when all of us went home because she had become seriously ill and was confined in the hospital.
I even thought that was the end. Though bedridden, she was able to gain strength and recovered. That was our last reunion. Indeed, death is like a theft in the night.
Nanay Doring is now gone but her memories will remain with us. We and the people of our barangay will surely miss her good deeds as a mother, and a community and religious leader. May her soul rest in peace. We love you, Nanay.
