A tribute to a wife and a mother

I bought Pan de Sal early this morning when I saw on tv that President Cory Aquino passed away. I have been thinking these past few days of featuring a yellow ribbon on my blog as part of the “tie a yellow ribbon” campaign but we’re unable to do so. And so I’m doing it now.

I have never given it much thought until now, but President Cory Aquino is my Ideal wife and mother along with my birth mother and mother-in-law. She is special in a way because I never knew her personally, and yet her strength that helped her raise her 5 children singlehandedly when Ninoy could not be around, the strength that made her accept the Presidency even when she would rather be at the background, the strength of a wife who stood by her husband, that strength is worth emulating.
But more than everything, it must be her faith in God that is the source of her strength and the inspiration to live a principled life. And so I admire her for her faith. I admire her for remaining simple despite destiny granting her the grandest of political office, that of being president.

Her critics during her administration often mentioned her being a wife and a mother and inexperience alongside their criticism. But maybe it was exactly being a wife and a mother that made her a fitting transition president. And being a mother to the last of her breath, her admonition to her children is for them to take care of each other. It should do all of us good as a people to heed her advice.