MyCentralians

Mga classmates,

Sharing with you our latest mini reunion @ Melourd’s in Sacramento, California May 16 – 17, 2009.

The dust has barely settled since the well-talked about “mother of all reunions”, the momentum was still in full swing  four months later and ten members of CPU BSN class 1969 randomly decided to meet in John and Melourd Lagdamen–Springer’s beautiful home in Sacramento, California, “just for the weekend”

Faith Hope Nava surely beat everyone by flying in two days earlier. Everyone else trickled in Saturday, except for Delia Gumban-Daus who was considered “local”. Berly Ilustre Javelosa and son drove for about twelve hours all the way from Portland, Oregon, Lydia Fernandez-Robles from San Francisco came with Susan Tayapad and hubby Nieto Xavier around noontime time from San Jose, California. The gang was in the middle of a scrumptious lunch when the So Cal contingent came (Ruth Paredes-Grino, Edith Villaruz, Jake and Sarla Ferrer- Duller) with Angi Majaducon from the Philippines .

The intent was to hold a “mini” one for those “who can make it”, as Mel said. So, picture the 10 of us gravitating in Mel’s formal dining as we ate, laugh, giggled, and gossiped (shhh) the time away.  Hey, it was a reunion. It was a given that we’d those things, right? But not necessarily in that order.  Now the “roll call”. Starting clockwise from the 1:00 o’clock position and the last reunion attended: Susan (Germany 2007); Berly (thank God, she made it to this one,  her first in 40 yrs) , Edith (Chicago 1999), Ruth (Philippines 2009)  Delia (Las Vegas 2006) Angi  (Philippines 2009), Faith (Philippines 2009) Lydia (Philippines 2009), Sarla  (Philippines 2009), Melourd  (Germany 2007). Berly and Edith had a lot of catching up.

It was a   mesh mash of catching up, reminiscing “big hall” shenanigans, those pleasant and not so pleasant memories we have transcended in the guise of character building, kuno. Most of the stories were recycled from previous get togethers i.e., the famous Luz and Sarla holding hand event, yet those stories are ageless, and just as funny when told over and over again. The chica chica was tinged with business report when Angi reassured everyone that the money collected  for the IMH Healing Garden project is still intact, just on hold, pending the completion of the Medical Arts building. It was a relief for those who were wondering what ever happened to the hard earned dough.

Discussion and sharing were interspersed by phone calls from Angel Robles who was visiting Arlie in Arizona . Angel, our First Lady classmate, and husband CPU President, Ted were on vacation from the Philippines. Angel opted to visit Arlie while Ted had a meeting with the Centralians in Riverside, California. We also talked to Nene Miray from Houston, Texas, and of course to Arlie. More laughter and giggling ensued as we reviewed faded photographs of our Nursing school days, previous reunions of our youthful years and the new hit was the photo album of our 40^th, courtesy of Paday. It is nice to be retired pa album-album na lang. Probably why John was constantly wheeling around with his camera snapping a picture here and there for the next album. Mel, hint, hint.

Eating was incessant, as what our reunions have been:  empanada,  valenciana, alupe,  tambo/tagabang/shrimp/gata, palabok, grilled salmon, chicharon bulaklak, and so forth (too many to remember for my senior mind). Can you believe Faith whipped up a few gourmet dishes? I do.  More giggles as we randomly shared our real life funniest senior moment stories. For example Angi shared that one day, she was looking for her sun glasses and later found it right on top of her head holding her hair together as a head band would.  And Edith confessed she could not identify her own self in the class picture!  Let’s all start writing those funniest senior moments to share during our 14^th reunion in Brisbane and you might just a win a prize for it!

Then we migrated to the TV room and watched a DVD of collaged pictures of our previous reunions. Some were sprawled on the floor, some were glued in the sofa, one classmate simply left and quietly went to sleep upstairs (guess who?). For sure she missed all the laughter and chica chica until  bedtime was officially declared. It was close to midnight.  John and Mel graciously offered the master bedroom and converted it into a  yes, big hall, for Ruth, Edith, Angi, Delia, and Lydia . Sarla had her “own” designated room with Jake (whhhooow), Faith and Berly in another room. Susan and Nieto slipped away to a local hotel (another whhhoooow).

Bright and early the following day, Angi , Lydia Jake and Sarla went to Sunday mass, some were still asleep, while Mel and John were buzzing in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the crew. Before long,  everybody converged in the breakfast nook to guess what? Yes, eat, again. This time it was Mel’s famous homemade French toast (make sure you get a copy of the recipe), cheese pandesal, fruits, juice and coffee, etc., etc. Later, Mel’s verdant backyard made a perfect backdrop for more Kodak moments. Even Tara , her dog, enjoyed the celebrity status to be in the picture too.  And more chica chica in the backyard swing until the sun was too hot for these Filipinos.

As all things must come to an end, so did this get together.  We opted for the brunch before we hit the freeways back to reality. Left overs were consumed (almost), and after the dishes were washed and put away,  Mel’s kitchen was left in a decent order, and the “to go’s” were packed and iced, it was time to part, and so more hugs and kisses. This time with a promise to see each other again “here, there, somewhere”. The somewhere could be in Brisbane in 2012, or the “there”, could be in San Francisco, and sooner as next year.

And the “Sige, halong” up to now still echoes in my mind!

-Sarla

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