Change of Plans...

Between me and Rob, we only have one living grandparent--my mom's mother, Lola Pacita. She lives in Vancouver, Canada with my mom's sister, Aunt Loren, and her husband, Uncle Boy. Lola Pacita came to our wedding last year, but I did not get to spend much time with her because of all the activities that were going on around that time.

They--Lola Pacita, tita Loren and tito Boy--arrived here on Wednesday night, May 3rd, 2006. The following day, we had my bridesmaids' luncheon. On Friday, my mom and I spent half the day at the spa--getting our nails done and stuff. The rest of the day was spent checking on the reception venue and helping with last-minute details. That night was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Then, Saturday, was the wedding and the only time I really spent with my grandmother was when we were taking pictures. On Sunday, we had a barbecue cook-out at my parents' house with my side of the family and that night, we said our good-byes. We left for our honeymoon on Monday at dawn and when we came back 2 weeks later, my grandma was gone!

I have not seen her for almost a decade when she came to our wedding last year and all I could remember was her emotional outbursts everytime she saw me or any one of my siblings. She would just stare at us--sometimes even forgetting our names--and the tears would start streaming down her face, or she would burry her head in my brothers' shoulders and sob. It was really sad, now that I recall, and I can just imagine what was running through her head. Perhaps she was wondering where the times have gone and how we've all changed--from little babies to mature, strong individuals. Or perhaps she was thinking of all the summer days we've spent at her house in Tarlac, back in the Philippines. Or better yet, perhaps they were tears of joy... that for the first time ever, she is able to attend one of her grandchildren's wedding! I will never know...

The thing we know for certain is that she is our only grandma living now. I hope and pray she has more years ahead of her, but you just never know what may happen or how things may turn out. And as Rob and I talked about these things, we've come to a decision to spend our first anniversary with her :-) We live in Florida, which is the beach capital of America. We have a beach house--only an hour away. We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. We can take a cruise any time we want to because, again, Florida has the most cruise ships at its ports. Do we really want to go on a cruise just to see the same scenery over and over again??? Rob said, "The cruise can wait. We can do that anytime. We can even go in the winter if we want to, but you can never take back time supposedly spent with your grandma." ... WOW!!! And with that said, our plans fell into place... I love my husband and it's words like these that make me fall in love with him all over again :-)

The GREAT thing about this is that my parents are going with us too! They've been going to Vancouver every other year and they were planning on going this March, but I guess they're going to wait until May instead! We're also going to Seattle, which is a 2 1/2-hour drive from Vancouver. My aunt and uncle live 5 minutes from various ski resorts, but in May, we're out of luck... Sorry, Rob, you'll have to wait until next winter to go skiing :-(

We got our wedding pictures back in June and in all of the ones with Lola Pacita in them--there she was with a tear in her eye, barely focusing on the camera... Perhaps, we'll get happier shots with her in Vancouver this May, amid the beautiful settings... of oceans... of gardens... of mountains... of wilderness... of nature.

Hello, Vancouver... We'll see you all very soon!!!