August 8 2008, 8-8-08, will it be a significant day for most of you? 8/8/08 has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
But what else is happening today?
Today is Sara‘s wedding date.
Today , the 29th Summer Olympics will take off in Beijing at 08:08:08 p.m.
Today is just an ordinary day for most of us.
My sister, Dr. Belen Lardizabal-Dofitas appeared in Jessica Soho last night as the resource person in behalf of the Philippine Dermatological Society (PDS) for the “Glutathione Supplements for Whitening”. My sister, a dermatologist by profession wrote the PDS position paper on glutathione supplements. There is also the recent controversial withdrawal of the license of 3 glutathione brands in the market which the public should take note. I’ve been meaning to blog about this because I see billboards everywhere on Supplements for Whitening. The most important message my sister wanted to convey is that there is still a lack of good quality scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety of glutathione supplements and injectable glutathione for lightening skin color.
(Above is the Youtube video of the Glutathione segment in the Jessica Soho show)
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.
(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:
Read More »RCBC Cabuyao Bank Robbery Victims and Their Families
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…
To my visitors who watched the blogging episode of Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho, welcome to my blog. I already wrote about the taping of this episode…but I want to clarify portions of the show.
You think any pain is worse than the pain of losing a child? Whatever words you hurl at me mean nothing to me. Be grateful, you are alive…that your family is intact. Don’t waste your energy on me. Life is so beautiful to waste it on negative energies.
Have you ever been in denial? Of course, we face denial now and then. It’s not necessarily bad. It’s a way of protecting ourselves from pain, at least temporarily.
Every Good Friday was just like any other day for me. The streets are empty. Everything is still. At 3:00 PM, I’d bow my head in prayer and reflect on Jesus’ death. That is before the death of my son. I never knew what it felt to be the mother of Jesus, losing a son until of course, I lost my precious son 8 years ago. Even if Mother Mary knew that Jesus died to save us, she was just as inconsolable as any mother who lost a child. My son was “clinically dead” when I got to him and I did not see him suffer. Not that I am diminishing my own pain but I bet Mother Mary suffered one thousand times more than I did for every nail and insult given to her beloved son.
How does this pain feel? Imagine…