Golden milestone for a golden couple

Last Saturday afternoon, at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, me and my wife Arlene and youngest daughter Nina attended the renewal of wedding vows of architect Servillano and Josephine Mapeso. Those vows were first made 50 years ago, in 1956, when he was 24 and she was 16.

It was the first time I have ever attended a golden wedding ceremony and it was a truly humbling experience. I cannot help but feel so small and puny watching a couple renew marriage vows that are almost as old as I am.

Anyone who has ever been married is often tempted to boast of having sailed through some of the turbulent tests that married life inevitably forces couples to take, tests euphemized in sing-song --- like " for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. "

Yet these tests are commonly there for everyone as part of life's roller coaster ride, regardless of whether they are married or not. And coming as they do in sets of good and bad, these tests inevitably allow us the luxury of hope, that a better tomorrow awaits a bad today.

The test of time is different. It is a never-ending test that must be continually taken each day without fail for as long as one is alive. For married couples, it is a test made more difficult in having to be taken and passed together. And there are no guarantees about tomorrow.

It is for having taken and passed this test of time together that I was silently held in awe of how much of life Sir Nonne and Maam Jo have challenged and then tamed, in order to enrich and strengthen their own.

A big part of their 50 years together I have watched up close, me and my family having been long-time tenants at their apartment complex in Banawa, 20 years to be exact. And I can say with some degree of authority that theirs is an extraordinary partnership.

Sir Nonne and Maam Jo cannot do without the other. Their togetherness need not be seen to be believed. There are days when I alternately see only Sir Nonne or Maam Jo, but I know that if either one is there, the other must also be there somewhere near.

Sir Nonne, at their reception at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel in Lahug after the church ceremony officiated by Msgr. Alesna, in place of Cardinal Vidal who was indisposed, told guests what he believed was the secret behind his successful 50 years with Maam Jo --- clean living.

I do not wish to dispute my landlord on that. But I sincerely believe there is so much more than just clean living that allowed them not only to stick together but to stay so much in love after all these years.

I believe the varying degrees of success of their eight children constantly reminded them of life's imperfections. Had life been too perfect for them, there would have been less need for the reassuring warmth, generous comfort and reliable strength that the other can offer.

And I believe the ability of Sir Nonne and Maam Jo to channel their passions and energies into shared causes may have nourished them well and gave them the strength to journey together. Two of these causes I personally know of, and will bind them forever in my highest regard.



Unknown to many Cebuanos, Sir Nonne and Maam Jo were responsible for facilitating a very huge donation of medical equipment from Canada, secured through the efforts of their son Gabriel, a doctor in that country, to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center here in Cebu.

These modern and expensive medical equipment are now saving lives at VSMMC without the couple and their son getting even a fraction of the credit they richly deserve. And that is not all. In Cantabaco, Toledo City, the couple donated a one-hectare property as site for a church.

The church, whose architectural design was also done free by Sir Nonne, will be dedicated to the Blessed Pedro Calungsod. It is still far from completion and I believe this is the latest challenge he and Maam Jo are looking forward to hurdle as they go well into their golden years.