The brown scapular

After 25 years I met Joe Lucente, former reporter of The Advocate and a war veteran. He noticed I was looking at his all-white hair. He said: "Old soldiers never dye."

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Laundry women in Cavite are complaining about the high cost of laundering. It's a sud life for them.

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While thousands are being killed as they search for Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attack in New York is said to be living safely and comfortably in Afghanistan.

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That's what I said before. If you have an enemy, take it easy, control your anger. Because while you gnash your teeth and curse the world, your enemy could be in the ballroom dancing.

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Someone texted me: "Have you heard of that high school teacher who thought the Social Weather Station (SWS) is a weather bureau?"

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No. But I have heard of a teacher who thought Bacolod was the capital of Davao.

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More than 20 years ago, a Protestant missionary (a woman) visited me in the old TF building to seek help for a sick child in her mission area in North Cebu. The child, she said, was in dire need of financial help.

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I said I could not give monetary assistance but I could use my column to raise funds. That was what I did and I was kind of swamped with financial help.

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That was more than 20 years ago. Last week, while I was in my "baddest" state of health, a woman came to me introducing herself as the mother of the child I wrote about in my column more than two decades ago.

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"Ang gitabangan mong bata madre na karon," she said. "Iya kong gihangyo nga ihatag kini nimo pagkadungog niya nga nasakit ka." It was a small ordinary envelope where a brown Mt. Carmel scapular was contained.

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I was touched, to say the least. God is really so good. Poor as I am, He gave me a way to be able to help a child in need. Praise the Lord!

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The above story will be the main topic of the book I plan to write, a compilation of selected items from this column. That may not be soon. But I hope it will come.

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Email: [email protected].