The feeling of magic is inescapable when one is immersed in a prolonged scene where love is the only elixir that permeates the air. It is unavoidable to bask in the rays of that glorious gift a moment where love is the central theme of the celebration. When two people are in love and celebrate their feelings, it is inevitable that those around them also become the recipients of the blissful moment. Such is the beauty of love.
Such love was rubbed off on me and a hundred other guests when we witnessed Ed and Joanne Ramirez exchange “I do’s” the second time around for their very intimate Silver Wedding anniversary. The look of love was radiantly written on the faces of the couple as they marched down the aisle fashioned from the scenic Veranda of Splendido in Tagaytay.
Days before their Silver Wedding, it was raining. Hours before the celebration, the sky was overcast. A few minutes before Ed and Joanne’s bridal car wheeled gently to the clubhouse of Splendido, cerulean became the color of the sky replete with rolling clouds. The perfect weather was perhaps the imprint of God, the symbol that He was present to witness anew the celebration of love between the couple in love.
Once or twice, while Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD officiated their sunset renewal of vows, Joanne would perch her head on Ed’s shoulders. And if the many times Ed wrapped his left arm around Joanne’s waist were any indication, the couple seemed to assure their guests that their love for each other would reach its golden stage and beyond. When night slowly dropped its cloak, the celebration was greeted with fireworks. Playful colors were splayed on the horizon as the couple embraced and kissed each other to seal their love anew. If that is not love, what is?
“It feels like we just got married yesterday. Time really flies when one is having a good time,” said Ed when I asked him how it felt to celebrate their 25 years of wedded bliss.
“I feel truly blessed! Happiness is a choice and Ed and I chose to be both happy and married,” Joanne said.
The couple met at Bates-Alcantara, an advertising agency where Ed was a creative director and Joanne was his copywriter. Emotional intimacy became imminent as the two worked in projects that would require them to spend many hours and late nights together. As they brainstormed and prepared and attended TV commercial shoots and pictorials, sparks ignited between the two and soon it was a whirlwind romance, as Joanne put it they shared one love and tied the knot on Nov. 16, 1985. Ed was Joanne’s first and only boyfriend. Since both are prolific writers, their wedding invitation was embossed with two pencils bound together by a ribbon.
“Ed said he picked me out of a shortlist that included senior writers because he liked my writing skills (and not my looks!),” Joanne joked.
In his speech at their Silver Wedding dinner reception at the Splendido, Ed humorously said: “I was her boss before. But when we got married, Joanne became my boss.”
It has been 25 years since the day they promised each other before God and man that they would love and protect each other. And if there was anyone who would match their love for each other, it would be their son Chino. “The best part about being my parents’ son is that I continually learn from and am loved by two amazing people,” Chino said.
“I think the greatest lesson I learned, even just by being by their side, is to live a good life. Each one of us is blessed in different ways, but we’re all blessed with one life. Looking back at the last 25 years of photographs and memories, I can only hope to enjoy life as much as they have. I wish my handsome dad and beautiful mom many, many more years of good health, happiness and love,” Chino added.
Twenty-five years of wedded bliss is a feat in a world where emotional uncertainties are real. How do Ed and Joanne manage to keep their love afloat, unmindful of the tides of time and unmoved by increment weather?
Joanne said their secret to a lasting relationship is not secret at all for it was already written on their wedding invitation 25 years ago, which Ed beautifully composed: “We join hands before God, as we write a new chapter together/ To express each word with honesty/ To write each page with patience/ To erase each mistake with understanding.”
As for Ed, the secret to their togetherness lies on this: “Patience. Patience. Patience. Nothing is perfect so expectations need to be adjusted from time to time. One has to develop the other so that the relationship or the partner doesn’t remain one-dimensional.”
And together they grow. To this day, 25 years after, they still nurture with care and affection the love they have for each other. I am privileged to be somehow privy to their love. Having known them for six years I call Joanne, my friend and editor in Allure as “My Queen” and I always call Ed, Belov-ED is already a beautiful lesson that prepares me to what long-lasting partnership is all about. I may not hear them whisper their sweet notes for each other but somehow I know how much they mean to each other in simple ways that I hear and observe. For instance, in our office in STAR, a little before 8 p.m., every Friday, Joanne will phone her house to make sure the food is ready and piping hot before her belov-Ed arrives. But Ed normally waits for her so they can eat dinner together. Ed would build a nice kitchen for Joanne or tend to their garden at home to make sure the foliage and blooms are healthy. Ahh, their healthy garden at home is symbolic of the relationship they share.
“I was a happy-go-lucky bachelor. Then, Joanne gave me goals in life,” Ed told me about the most important lesson he has learned from his wife. He added, “Marriage is not about couples getting together. It’s about couples committed to staying together.”
“From Ed, I learned and am still learning, not to take life or myself or problems too seriously. He sleeps like a baby every night and (so far) doesn’t need any medication except for Biogesic in the very few times he has the flu,” Joanne said.
Perhaps Joanne, who looked regal in a Cary Santiago gown during the Silver Wedding, is the antioxidant that makes the life of her husband free from all the physical discomforts of life. Without doubt, their love for each other is the reason why many people quipped at their renewal of vows that they didn’t look any different from the blushing and radiant groom and bride that they were 25 years ago.
Ed and Joanne have just proven to all and sundry that love, when shared, indeed, can keep you young and alive. And to the many lives the couple has touched with their beautiful tale of love, the experience of witnessing their renewal of vows is already a gift that will resonate in their hearts.
Such is the magic of love.
(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com or my.new.beginnings@gmail.com. Follow me on twitter, too, @bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)