She was born a day after I had uprooted myself from their residence in Bicol to join my family and seek the destiny that awaited me in Manila after graduating from high school.
It was the same day I turned 17.
From then on, April 21 became a shared birthday celebration between my niece, Sheena “Shane” Mediavillo Barcelon and me.
But on her thirteenth birthday and my 28th, I found out that I was actually born a day earlier than she. Thanks to my decision to already get hitched in 1997, I got hold of my NSO birth certificate and it rectified the wrong datum in me. As a consequence, this correction led to my having two birthdays – the traditional and the real one. This had brought confusion and a little disorientation to those people who had known my natal day to be April 21. Well, a lot of my friends and of course my family stuck to the former date. So did I.
Between Shane and me, we would greet each other on the date which we had both treated as mutual. She would always acknowledge me as her co-celebrator in our family. Funny was, I also share my real birthdate with my first grandson, Nathan John Barcelon Llasos, who happens to be Shane’s nephew.
Anyway, this article is not about joint birthdays in our clan, but my simple way of joining in Shane’s happiness when she tied the knot with the man whom she described as her best partner, her answered prayer, and the other part of her wing, last August 9 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Unluckily, no one from us was there to witness this momentous day for several reasons. Assured of another wedding ceremony to take place here in the Philippines, we just have to stand by and wait for the invite.
Tonight, as I look at these photos of my niece, I couldn’t believe that she had fully grown into a 27-year-old woman and had finally settled down.
I had to smile and slightly shake my head. Never did I expect that this anime fanatic, tomboyish, carefree, easy-go-lucky but very enterprising niece of mine had already been nurtured by years to finally choose this new chapter of her life.
I know I had become a little “Miss Minchin” tita to her in her younger years, but my strictness and being a disciplinarian had only backed up the values which their mother, my eldest sister Olen, had instilled in them and which she would now be bringing as she performs the role of Mrs. Jofel Geliang.
To you, Jofel and Shane, cheers! With my wishes come my fervent prayers that your union will forever be “made in heaven.”
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