Saturday (09/16/06)

An Afternoon To Remember

Plans have been made. Lots of them. But just that! Only plans. Yet this short-notice plan of a reunion meeting came to a stunning reality. In this epoch, who could believe that a magnificent 7 Florence Nightingales of San Pedro College could be together after over 2 score years? And of all things, they were all euphoric women. They really were in the seventh heaven as their waves of laughter shook the rafters of the joint, so to speak.

They came. They met. They talked. And streams of college joys and tears gushed forth from their eyes as they recalled their yesterdays in the College of Nursing in Davao City, Philippines. Those days were momentous and beyond forgetting.

They are worthy to be in the book of records as they are successful in their own respective fields of endeavor, careers, and marital life. They are in alphabetical order: Connie, Fe, Loida, Polly, Tessie, Thelma, and Vangie.

According to Peter S. Temes in his book, The Power of Purpose," the trick to making a typical marriage work, it seems, is the balance of the good against the bad, the sharing of the whole package. If you can't help but fight over money, but then don't balance that out by sharing the small joys of a life truly shared, you might think that money problems have sunk your marriage, when in fact it's the lack of the good, not the presence of the bad, that makes all the difference. It's the total package that leads to success, the sharing of whole lives. If you give your spouse only part of yourself, if you keep secrets, if you try too hard to put only certain pieces of your personal puzzle into your marriage, you'll make a happy ending harder to find. The best prescription for a marriage is to focus on things that both partners agree on that help build the habits of caring and mutual support. "

The horizons of these Magnificent 7 Florence Nightingales are rosy. They were vibrant and full of vigor. In fact, Connie emailed, that it was a "nice afternoon. Could we meet to have another of that?" And Tess wrote, " Lunch was wonderful. we need to do it again."

That meeting in the Filipiniana Restaurant at Niles was indeed an afternoon to remember.

( By Greg Intas Alcala Caponong Trabanca )