The Worldwide Candle Lighting on December 14, 2008

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2008 Annual Worldwide Candle Lighting Services

Communities across the globe will be joining in The Compassionate Friends 12th Annual Worldwide Candle Lighting on December 14, 2008. In the Philippines, it will be held in Quezon City.

Where: 2nd level, University of the Philippines Institute for Small Scale Industries
E. Virata Hall, UP Diliman Campus
Diliman, Quezon City
View Map

Date: Sunday , December 14, 2008
Time: 5:00 to 8:00 PM
Please email me at noemidado@gmail.com if you want to join the memorial service.

Click here for Venue List of Other Countries

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Grief Over Marky Cielo & Lea ALyanna De Vera’s Death

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Even if I have lost a son, I still cannot imagine what it is like for Marky Cielo’s parents. I cannot imagine the horror of Lilian de Vera, the mom of Lea Alyanna, the 7 year old girl caught in a crossfire, found dead on dimly lit Sampaguita Street along with 10 other people, including eight of the suspected robbers, and her husband.

I can only imagine Lilian’s devastation as she cried out…

““Why do you have to kill my little angel? Why do you have to kill my husband? He’s a good man. We’ve done nothing wrong to you.”

The real cause of Marky Cielo’s death is hazy at this point. His family said he died while he was sleeping. But the Antipolo Doctor’s Hospital cited the reason as “confidential.” Some showbiz insiders speculate that it was suicide. Others go as far as saying, “It was prompted by love.” Just like that, a life is gone. So young, so soon. Their deaths were so sudden, just like my son’s death.

One of the things so astonishing about losing a loved one is that, while the sun continues to rise and set, newspapers continue to be delivered, traffic lights change from red to green and back again, our whole life is turned around, turned upside down. That devastating feeling, I know for sure.

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Mead Johnson’s Enfakid A+ Milk Formula Does Not Nourish Your Kids’ Brain

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Oh the irony of Enfakid A+ Milk Formula with Nourishing the Brain and the Pursuit of Excellence!

Milk Formula Manufacturers are quite aggressive in their marketing campaign that they are not checking their “trying to be smart” ads. Blooey first pointed out the Enfakid Milk Ad as shown in the Inquirer (Page D3, October 22) and I want to re-post the photos and explanation below.


Flipping through PDI today, an ad reads… (page D3)

Flap opens to…

And then the milk formula in the corner.

Their ad further shows that

Your child can learn, discover and imagine far richer with Enfakid A+. Now with enhanced DHA levels that help brain cells communicate well to support your kid’s rapid mental development. Nourish the brain. Pursue Excellence”.

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Kippy Cat Travels

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I am right now in Narita airport en route to San Francisco and I might as well entertain myself before boarding time. It’s been years since I’ve visited the states not since the year before my son died in 2000. As my son and I sat on the airplane seat on board our flight to Cebu a few days before his death, he begged me to take him to the states the following summer. I hugged my precious boy and promised him I’d take him along because the previous years were spent with the girls choir tour in the US and Canada. It was his turn to be with me.

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Ely Buendia Rushed to Hospital, Eraserheads Reunion Cut Short

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(Youtube Video of the Eraserheads Reunion Concert Grand Entrance by Karla Redor)

I don’t know why but I wasn’t surprised that the Erasehead Reunion was Cut short because Ely Buendia was rushed to the Hospital. Not that I wished the concert would turn out badly, but I was thinking of Ely’s physical and emotional state as the concert went along.

At around 8:00 PM, my husband and I passed by Two Serendra to check on the progress of the condo renovations. I wasn’t aware that the concert was right beside Two Serendra until tonight. Listening from the 5th floor of our condo, I could hear the countdown then much later, the Alapaap song being played. From that distance, the sounds didn’t seem too blasting. I felt relief not having to hear the thud-thud of the drums and the blaring amps. Loud music causes my heartbeat to race like crazy. The last concert I went to caused my heartbeat to go thump-thump for more than an hour.

I turned to my husband and thought out loud “How can Ely survive those blaring sounds?” “And how can he sing just days after his mom died?”

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QTV Sweet Life on A Child’s Grief

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I declined to appear in the Sweet Life Episode on “Comforting the Bereaved” for Lorna Tolentino’s friends. My last TV appearances left me disillusioned with anything showbiz in it. Despite the tragic elements in my life, I cannot stand embellishments injected into my life story. The segment producer tapped me to be the resource person for “A Child’s Grief” and I hemmed and hawed. I then remembered that grief education is part of my mission in life so I agreed in the end.

The guests were two young women, widowed in their mid-twenties. The focus of the segment was comforting their bereaved children. I discussed some creative projects and self-care. Every now and then I had to butt in and correct some misconceptions on Grief Recovery. Lucy Torres is quite smart but I don’t know what to make of Wilma Doesnt, her co-host. At the end of the show, I handed my calling card to the two widows. Wilma looked at me backing off as if I had some communicable disease don’t give me a calling card in half-joking/serious tone. Well, I told her I didn’t plan on giving you anyway but she kept repeating it. What the??

Apparently, she found the show’s theme so heavy and depressing that she kept whining about it. To think I was there to educate them about Child’s grief.

Since my portion covered less than 6 minutes (they practically cut half of that segment and concentrated more on Lorna Tolentino’s grief), I want to add more details that were not really discussed and which parents and guardians of a bereaved child might find useful.

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RCBC Cabuyao Bank Robbery Victims and Their Families

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(RCBC Updates / Last Rites on Victims below the Videos)

Butch first told me about the RCBC bank robbery as his company is somehow related to RCBC. In his entry on A Season of Violence and Death, my husband writes:

The killers’ calculus was simple and chilling: No witnesses, lesser chances of getting caught. And so they went about their grisly business, systematically slaughtering ten people, whose grim fate was sealed the moment the butchers stepped into the bank .

The brutality and utter disregard for human life is so unusual and disturbing that it was the topic that my friends and I talked about yesterday just before our support group meeting of the Compassionate Friends. A friend (who is a banker herself) knew the bank manager, the spouse of her officemate. I just find it eerie to hear the last few minutes of their life together. Horrified, we started to discuss the incongruity of it all:

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Angel Gabriel – Jose Gabriel Dela Rosa

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Photo from gjaysworld.org

A reader sent me the link to GJay’s blog, which was started by his uncle Raffy dela Rosa. I thought at first Gjay (Jose Gabriel Dela Rosa) was injured and may have hope of recovery but…

It’s been a month since 7 year old Gjay passed away. The nature of his death was a freak vehicular accident in Pasadena, USA. Imagine this , a loving family arrives in the USA expecting to have fun during a summer vacation and a few hours after their arrival, this tragic accident happens to them…

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