Double Life

Bert and Cora Pineda on their 39th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

"A double life sentence!" my Dad joked. It is my parents' thirty nineth wedding anniversary and the whole family is celebrating it over Mothers' Day lunch buffet at the Edsa Plaza Hotel.

"A double life sentence!" my Dad joked. It is my parents' thirty nineth wedding anniversary and the whole family is celebrating it over Mothers' Day lunch buffet at the Edsa Plaza Hotel.

A double life sentence meaning it's been twenty plus twenty years that he's been in "prison" with Mom. He loves doing that. To my utter dismay and my siblings' as well. We just hate it. His carino brutal style of showing his love for our Mom. Ask him what their theme song is and with a twinkle in the eye, he'll say "Release Me". Then he'd jump into a stanza and in his deep baritone go: "Please release me, let me gooooo...." and laugh. By himself. Because we are all frowning and we are definitely not amused.

Okay. Okay. Maybe a little. I have to admit my Dad can be cute when he does this. Definitely better than his Is-that-part-of-the-plan ultra-serious side, that's for sure.

But my Mom, she loves all this. She smiles a knowing smile. As if she is delighted. No, not delighted. More like...entertained? Or maybe she's not. But she smiles just the same. With my Mom, we will never really know. She is very private when it comes to things between her and my father. She is not the type to tattle-tale about anything, good or bad, about them.

Mom is fiercely loyal. And she loves my Dad unconditionally. Dad, in spite of his outward carino brutal manner of showing of affection, loves my Mom to death. My Dad would be completely lost without my Mom. Maybe it's this love and loyalty that allow them to be amused by all this.
Dad turns wistful after a while. In between bites of his steak, he allows us see some vulnerability for a change. He enthuses, "We may have been together for thirty nine years but it doesn't feel like that at all. Perhaps it's because of the love we have for each other that it seems like only yesterday when we first met..." and this is when we all start hollering and howling teasingly. Besides, Randy, Leslie, Joey and I are beginning to get embarrassed by all this show of genuine affection from Dad who is hardly affectionate!

Aha, there's hope after all!

In all, it was one super fun Mom & Dad Anniversary/Mothers' Day celebration. I loved it especially since we were able to bond as a family where our bellies ached not so much from over-eating but because of laughing so hard. But I do have to admit we may have had just a little too much of that delicious spread. I can still taste the nine lobsters I greedily piled on my plate.

We love you Mom & Dad. Carino brutal or not, thanks for all the love you have shared with us and with each other. Thanks for being our best examples of love and loyalty. May there be another double life sentence for you both. We can only aspire to have the same kind of love-prison for us who are just starting out in our married life 'sentences'.



Bert and Cora Pineda and the beautiful products of their "double-life sentences"