Josie at 70

My subject today is not about law or current events but about a special lady who is so eager and happy reaching the age of 70. She does not mind publicly revealing that she is now a septuagenarian because she does not look like one anyway. Anybody who sees her will not believe that she raised and lovingly took care of one daughter (now deceased) and five sons, that she is a doting grandmother of 14 boys and one girl, and that she is married to a man who is, and really looks and acts like a septuagenarian. She is often mistaken as the older sister of her five daughters-in-law who also do not look as old as they are because all of them appear to be only in their late twenties or early thirties.

In her happiness, she has been excitedly counting her blessings and drawing up a list of the most important ones in each of the 70 years of her life. And as she goes over them one by one she cannot help but be profusely thankful to the Lord God above. Indeed even if she is not as healthy as when she was 40 or 50 or 60, she considers herself so blessed at 70. Her name is Josie, my wife and conjugal partner for 46 years whose birthday it is today.

We have been together for the greater and better parts of our lives and have sailed our conjugal ship through turbulent seas and stormy weathers but manage to reach safely back to the shore. Like all marital unions ours is also pockmarked with rocky episodes, yet it has remained solid and is growing even stronger.

The occasional turmoil and instability in our relationship and affinity is admittedly due more to my weakness and vulnerability to all sorts of temptations. Yet I am able to overcome all of them because somehow she served as my shield that protects and helps me not to yield. For, unabashedly I can say that septuagenarians like me are still attracted and have some fancy for a thing of beauty who can inflame passions easily. Yet I can equally say that Josie can still satisfy the needs and desires that sometimes arouse me and force me to take a second or third look at women who are young and pretty.

Indeed she does not readily give up on persons and is always open to reconciliation as she gladly forgives and accepts forgiveness. May be this is the main reason for our durable relationship. Our channels of communication are always open because we engage in dialogue more than in discussions and arguments where we are more concerned with our feelings than with our reasons and judgments, and where we listen to each other by hearing not only the words coming out of our lips but also the feelings coming out of our hearts.

She also does not give up things so easily. She has so many keepsakes and souvenirs that elicit fond memories. She still finds some use for things that have outlived their usefulness by recycling them and using them for some other purpose. Just as she does not easily give up on persons and just reconcile with them, she also does not give up and discard things and just recycle them.

Our partnership has lasted and I am sure will endure because she is my constant companion and my support in fostering a healthy and strong family life, in promoting an active social life, in developing a competitive and competent professional life and most importantly in enhancing a deep and devout spiritual life.

Thus we enjoyed together our life with our children and helped each other in rearing them into becoming responsible adults and have families of their own so that now we are having fun not only with them but also with our grandchildren. Actually Josie looks forward to our family gathering at the house every weekend so that she can enjoy our grandchildren by inculcating in them her artistic talents in music and dancing, but not to the extent of becoming their baby sitter.

Then she also makes it a point to accompany me in social gatherings with my personal, civic and professional friends; or ask me to accompany her in the parties and affairs of her friends and associates. Being constantly seen together has somehow resulted in awkward situations where people, especially our friends and acquaintances, wonder out loud and look for her whenever she is not with me; or look for me whenever I am not with her in affairs and other public places where we are often seen together.

And one of the places where we are always seen together during the past so many years is in Church where we go to Mass daily at 6 a.m. This is one activity where our relationship with each other and with God has tremendously taken big strides. Even during days when she finds it hard to wake up so early in the morning because of the tiresome night before, she still struggles to rise up so that we can go to Church together and pray the Rosary first while walking around the Church patio before hearing Mass. After Mass we have our breakfast in nearby cafes and eating places where we are perhaps the only couple who have become their regular habitués.

This is Josie at 70 living the here and now and not the yesterdays or the tomorrows, but not forgetting the past and still looking ahead for many more years of preparation for a new life with our Creator. This is the woman who has been my constant companion for the past 46 years of sojourn on this earth — the woman I want to hold hands with as we face the sunset and the lengthening shadows of life.       

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