Not with my son, you don’t! By Emmanuelle This week, this mother talks: It was an indescribably difficult birth, but finally, after twelve hours of dry labor my first child was born. He will be my first and only son. I will have my first and only girl many years…

An exercise in futility By Emmanuelle If she did not switch off the lights and if she did not turn down the earphones, she would not have seen and she would not have heard the little girl crying. In the rain. At ten in the evening. As it was, without…

Go, Dana, go! By Emmanuelle The angels must have prayed hard, harder each of the second and third times Dana went comatose. They must have moved heaven. For Dana to have survived being comatose was a miracle in itself. To have survived two more of the same is beyond miracle….

Go, Dana, go! By Emmanuelle Nowadays, the churches are seldom empty. People look up to heaven more. Eyes closed and hands clasped in fervent plea, they pray for the strength to persevere. For the simple daily miracle of finding resources within and without themselves. Most of all, for the safety…

Frightday! By Emmanuelle It was just another workday. Though it was work not like any other. Only a few dared venture into it with unflagging zest and energy, day to day to day. Pauline is one of the very driven few. That I know. That I like. This place she…

What if? By Emmanuelle Truth may be as clear as the sun that blinds us on the bluest of blue sky. Truth, too, may be as false as the fog that drifts in whiffs from dry ice. Nina and Nick’s families were friends and neighbors before they were all happily…

February’s Child By Emmanuelle Properly wedded or otherwise, if your father and your mother coupled within or thereabouts the month of June, the fruit of such union . . . in February comes. That is, if the fertilized seed were cared for, and not scared off, from the moment of…

What’s up, duck? By Emmanuelle This story was told by someone I knew from the day he first walked on two plump unsteady feet. I didn’t get to know him when he was still crawling on all fours. He was then too engrossed with getting to know the floor and…

A youth’s letter to the elders By Divina Gracia Vidal Colegio de Dagupan It’s still a long wait before the next elections, and yet people already have their bets and are talking about the 2010 plebiscite. But what do we really wait for? Is it to know who would be…

Babes in BigBoysland! By Emmanuelle One does not get lost on the way to Nancapian Farm, silly. Nevertheless, we did so, easily. It was my sister’s first time to drive the shortcut through Manaoag, Mapandan, and Sta. Barbara. And naturally, as our usual ways, she or I or both of…