MARIA T. GASCON-ATUTUBO
July 22, 1928-September 4, 2011
"A few days ago, I posted my mother's graduation picture on my facebook wall, honoring her memory as a dutiful daughter and sister, as a devoted wife, as a loving, dedicated mother and as a doting grandmother.
Immediately, I received an outpouring of condolences from friends, colleagues and former classmates. To one of them, I remember posting a reply to the effect that my mother lived a quiet and simple life, expending most of her time and energy to the immense task of nurturing not only her children but also the countless pupils she mentored through the years.
But then again, I realized that children like me have a tendency to view their parents thru a rose-tinted prism. As an adult who has, in all probability, lived more than half of his allotted time in this mortal coil, I told myself: You should know better. No life is ever quiet and simple - not when you're the eldest daughter of a brood of eleven, not when you get married, not when you have seven children as my mother did.
Without fear of contradiction, however, I think I can say that she bore all her trials well - with quiet dignity, with stoicism and practicality, with tireless industry, with love devoid of sentimentality and, most of all, with a deep, abiding faith in her maker.
Despite the long years she spent in this town, my mother never lost her Irigenio identity. With your help, however, as good friends, esteemed colleagues and kind neighbors, she came to call Buhi as her home. Thanks to you, she was no stranger here, from the time she came as a bride of my father, through all the years she devoted to us as our mother, up to the last few years she spent preparing for the promise of the hereafter she so deeply believed in.
As in her life, you have come to honor her in death. For these, we, her children, are inestimably grateful. We cannot thank you enough."
