There is a massive difference between the use of fine words and the fine use of words.
The night was gloomy. The November cold wasn’t helping. She held on to him for warmth like how she had for the few months that had passed. His heart had more than warmth to offer.
They drove around the city somehow realizing how funny fate could be, at the same time recognizing Someone had mapped it all out for them. For who could believe that in this small city, where everyone knows everyone’s shadow, they have not known about each other, up until 5 months ago. Despite the fact that they both lived here for more than 30 years, despite the many common friends they have, despite numerous government functions they were both present at, yes, despite the fact that they stood as godparents to two of their friends’ children, they only became aware of each other’s existence one God-given day in July.
Indeed, when love walks into your life, an ordinary day takes on a new dimension. On the day that was painted with waiting, her waiting for the right man ended. Along with her co-teachers, Lovella queued up to claim her honorarium at the COMELEC Office for the services she rendered during the last election. Mixing sweat and stories, like most joyful teachers, they waited for their turn. At one point, Edsel, her co-teacher and close friend mentioned about her singleness and jokingly volunteered to play cupid and find her a match. They mockingly discussed prospects and possibilities even as they joined another line of people, this time, buying fruits from the vendors near the office.
Just then, a familiar face, owned by a man riding a motorcycle crossed Edsel’s horizon. He took no second thought and muttered “Ma’am Love, how does an architect sound to you? See that guy? I know him. He’s single.” When Lovella turned around to look at this man Edsel was talking about, she only saw his back as he sped along.
No sparks. No fireworks. The clouds didn’t gather to form a wreath. No birds suddenly appeared to sing a serenade. Nature gave no clue that God had answered her prayers.
For days now she has been devoting some time to take a walk early in the morning and talk to God. It would be for forty days, like how she did it many times over when she would ask God for something. This walk that would conclude on her birthday would be for something she has long waited for – A lifetime partner. No, not a boyfriend, not a get-the-day-through guy but the one who would spend the rest of his days with her.
Unknown to her, Edsel was serious about introducing her to Fred. Serious may not describe his strategy of sending Fred an anonymous text containing Lovella’s phone number and an imperative “text her”, but he never doubted in his mind that they would make a good couple. So, he tirelessly sent Fred messages coaxing him to start a communication with her.
It was only when Love received a wrongly sent text message that she found out what was going on behind her back. It was from Fred, asking Edsel a question, giving the impression that he thought Lovella’s phone number was Edsel’s. Later on, he confessed of his disguising strategy.
Lovella replied modestly, showing not much interest. A reply started a conversation. A conversation started a regular and intentional communication, then, the resolution to finally meet each other in person.
That God-appointed day came. Without glamour and fancy, they met. Surprisingly, they realized, this wasn’t the first time they saw each other. One day,( while still in their phase of exchanging messages), on her way to work, Lovella saw a guy in black shirt cross the street and a strange feeling told her it was Fred. Today, she found out it was indeed him. Fred on the other hand, recalled a woman that caught his attention, clad in a little black dress, during a photo exhibit at the city hall. And yes, he remembered that face too, of a lady sitting poised in a tricycle, carefully covering the slit on her skirt with her right hand, looking at her while he crossed the street one day. And like long-time friends they talked, laughed and shared candid moments.
The talks translated into longer, deep conversations. The laugher turned to meaningful smiles and the moments were slowly filed into memories. The days unfolded the wonder they found in each other. Little by little their souls became transparent to each other. Their preferences, ideals and dreams were almost similar. Their common ground was slowly enlarging, laying the foundation to a meaningful relationship.
Falling in love is wonderful but the problem with love is, you can’t keep it to yourself. Fred could no longer hold the weight of love in his heart, he laid it out in the open. What woman could resist the heart of a man truly in-love? Lovella knew this was no ordinary man. He sought God’s will and He answered. She professed her love for him and together, they painted beautiful days.
When love takes you in everything changes. And on that cold November night, as they drove along the streets of this city they call their home, they noticed how ordinary things took on new meanings. The few months of knowing each other filled the empty cracks of the years that were behind them. To Lovella, the long waiting seemed like yesterday. On the other hand, Fred could only wish tomorrow is here today.
While she enjoyed the warmth of his presence, he longed to give her a future. He purposely stopped their street-combing in front of an edifice most familiar to both of them. Unlighted and empty at this cool hour of the night, the church seemed like a perfect façade for the proposal Fred had made up in his mind. Clueless of what was going to happen but marvelling at the gesture, Lovella enjoyed this quiet moment together, until he broke the silence. He asked her to marry him.
You now know what her answer was. Indeed, when God writes our love stories it is unlike the rest. He carefully scribbles His signature in our moments and weaves together amazing experiences that we call miracles. God gave Fred and Lovella their own brand of miracle. They now continue to warm each other in the fire of God’s love.
*Lovella is a good friend of mine and the photo above is one of their pre-nup photos. She works as a school paper adviser in a high school here in our city. While planning for her wedding, she decided to give it a personal flare and thought of making her invites look like a newsletter. In fact, the invite really is a newsletter!!! She gave me the honor of writing their lovestory. She and Fred will get married in May. photo courtesy of Fotographia*
Today, I was blown away by a love story of which I am very much a part of. And I am even humbled to say I am.
They were college friends - like really tight friends belonging to a group of about 8 guys and three girls (im not so sure how many they were). He got his own thing going, she had hers. He pursued girls who wore skirts to ball games, she pursued a guy who had no idea about ballgames…and later on, preferred skirts.
Oh no, don’t even try to laugh about the latter. It was for her, and for us, a serious matter. So serious that when she learned about his change of ‘heart’, without restraint she booked the next flight to an island, grabbed her skimpiest swimsuit and dragged two of us, her cousins. When cousins come together at the oddest times of the year, say October/November, it only means one thing: P.A.I.N. Convention.
Alcohol is lame. We never used it to accompany our tears. If we had, it was for some other reasons. We faced pain head on, spilled the goriest details of ‘what went wrong’, and Philosophize Agony Into (complete and utter) Nonsense*. We were in a beautiful place…only, for the wrong reason.
So she sworned off men. No, not sworn off...she turned every opportunity of meeting men into a session of suspicious scrutiny. All the decent men she met fell on two categories: Gay and almost Gay. She concluded, and made us believe too that, all the straight men were either taken or two-timing. Haha!
And so we renewed the pact we had in college, that which was brought about by our lonely Sunday night teatimes: If we end up to be spinsters, we’d live together in a house, write and sew. She even started on a cross stitch project.
Tired of his random dating, he tried to take her out on dates. She went, because they were a clean way to get free food, free movie and some intelligent conversations. (Not only were guys around her not totally guys, they also lack wit.)
And who wouldn’t fall in love with Sherlin Camacho? She is the most honest, caring, selfless and true person I know. So, Dondy Duazo was smitten, and never recovered. He told her about it. She casually dismissed the proposal. He tried again, and another time... he found out, she was unlike the rest. He tried seven times.
She tried too. She tried to NOT care. But what woman can escape the presence of a man in-love? She asked God about this guy. And while she was talking to Him in silence, a language only a loving Father understands, Dondy squeezes her hand so tight. She knew, he’d never let go.
He has not. Even after being separated by oceans, even after spending countless nights eating noodles alone, even after her immature fits of rage, they still end the night saying: “I love you, babe!” in the presence God…and the countless spectators on Facebook.
He was proud of his cheesy-ness, surprising her with a bouquet of sunflowers one ordinary day.
Today, he didn’t know he was going to lose his balance. A Starbucks booth suddenly showed up in his office, treating everyone with that scandalously expensive coffee, all because: He turned 30! Suddenly, the background-kind of guy that Dondy is became known all over Lufthansa Technik. To say that he ‘blushed’ is waaaay below an understatement!
Was he to be embarrassed of such grand gesture? He had no idea what he was getting into when last year, at around this time, she asked her to marry him. He had no idea that this petite woman was capable of writing the VP of the HR in their company that “She wanted to surprise her fiancé so they have let her pull off her Starbucks trick”. All that while she is miles away - in Singapore.
Maybe a few years back, he didn’t know. But after today, I am sure he knows this:
He is to marry a woman who fights for love like her life hangs on it and would not hesitate, no, not even for a second, to let the whole world know about it.
I, a self-proclaimed Venus, sit silent. I tuck away my poems and maybe for today, lend her my throne.
I love you both, Sherl and Dondy!! :)
p.s. That's them in the photo :D
*The meanign of PAIN was her idea. haha!
