IF ONLY (A movie review)

This is another good love story…in fact another fave if not for its tearful ending…it tells the story of a businessman, Ian (played by Paul Nicholls) who lives with girlfriend Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Ian tends to take Sam for granted and the movie starts with a typical day in their life together. The day however, ends badly with Sam and Ian getting into an argument while dining at a restaurant so Sam leaves in a huff, boards a taxi and while Ian is running after her to apologize, she gets hit and dies in a hospital. Ian goes home, finds her notebook and sleeps clutching it tightly.

The next day, Ian is surprised to see Sam standing in his apartment and concludes that what happened must have been a dream. And so he goes on with the day, happy that Sam is alive and by his side…As the day progresses, however, certain events that occurred in his dream (or what he thinks as his dream of yesterday’s events) begin to happen again – like Sam being burnt on the hand (in Ian’s dream due to a kettle and due to hair straightener today), Coke is also spilt on her, and then he gets on the same taxi cab driven by the same man whom he talked with yesterday (in his supposed dream).

By then, Ian gets convinced that yesterday was not really a dream and so he tries to stop the next succeeding events from happening. First, he convinces Sam to go with her to his hometown…they take a train and he brings Sam to a mountain spot he used to visit as a child. They enter an abandoned cottage usually used as shelter from a storm…inside Ian notices that his watch has stopped (just like in his dream) Ian asked her what she would do if she only had one more day to live and she answers she’d spend time with him, just being together.

The two return to London and as another surprise Ian takes Sam to the London Eye. They return to the apartment and Sam gets ready for the violin concert. While she is distracted, Ian takes a page from her notebook and photocopies it. He then gives copies to the other members of Sam’s orchestra. After the concert, Ian gives Sam a bouquet of flowers, gets up on stage and calls an obviously confused and nervous Sam. The orchestra begins to play the song printed on the photocopied sheets and Sam sings the song she made for Ian and the audience applauds her performance.

The couple then have dinner and Ian gives Sam a charm bracelet with different symbols depicting their happy moments together – a violin, a musical note, a flower, the train (to symbolize the day they had today) and the Eiffel tower (which Sam always wanted to see). As they leave, it rains and while waiting for a taxi, Ian realize they are in the same spot last night when the accident took place and so Ian professes his love for Sam and says that if it weren’t for today of her…he wouldn’t have known true love at all… Sam begins to cry and says she doesn’t know what to say.

Then, a taxi pulls up and the two get inside. Ian sees it is the same cab man they take a ride in and so when the clock strikes the ominous hour of 11, he grabs Sam tight for the last time. Sam’s screams is heard and the next scene shows them in the hospital with Lottie (Sam’s friend running towards a hospital room). Inside she sees Sam sitting on the bed and she tells Lottie about Ian’s premonition and how she refused to believe him. But in the end, it was Ian who died in the accident instead of Sam.

This is a really good and touching story because it gave Ian the chance to have just one day to do something special for the person he loved before she dies…not knowing that in the end it is him who will actually die…making the ultimate sacrifice for the person he loved so much… It tells the lesson that one should not take his or her partner for granted and treat her special each and every day because one never really knows when he or she will be taken away from you.

PAPA’S 60th BIRTHDAY!

Papa celebrated his 60th birthday today and just like what we did with Mama…we planned a ‘surprise’ party for him…this time though we decided to hold it at his office because it was a weekday and since he won’t be going on leave naman. We connived with his officemates to make sure that he will be going to his office in Pasig, you see for the past few years since Union Bank merged with Ibank he has been holding two offices – one in Pasig and the other in Makati. And since the Makati office is just near his residence, he usually spends his time there and just goes to the Pasig branch once a week. So this week, we made sure he will be going to Pasig today and I connived with Norie (his secretary) to make up some excuse (a meeting maybe or some important papers to sign) just so he’ll be there…

They were also the one who prepared the other stuff for the ‘surprise’ – like the food for the staff and us to share, the tarpaulin announcing his turn to becoming a ‘senior citizen’, and we brought the cake – his favorite chocolate cake from Aristocrat. We came there early and waited… we took some pictures around the office, but surprisingly…I couldn’t find them na??? I remember I even took pics of the food…but they’re all gone! All that’s left is a pic of the cake… and the memory of happiness that I saw in my father’s eyes when he saw us there at his office…waiting for him! I know it could’ve been better organized – but the lead organizer (Tita Espie) wasn’t here but at Dubai …his 60th birthday should’ve been held at the hotel with many of his friends – specially ones that he has not seen in a long time all there to greet him and recount wonderful memories with him…but it wasn’t meant to be…maybe when he’s 70 na lang! At least, we made some kind of effort to make him happy on this special day! Happy Birthday Papa! Thank you so much for always being there for me… I love you!

A funeral and a wedding

I don’t know why these two so very disparate events are often lumped together …maybe it’s because of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts’ movie back in 1994...or maybe because these two events have in common the capability to turn people emotional though in totally different ways. Before the year 2008 ended, I had the misfortune to attend the funeral of a person quite close to my heart.

The funeral happened in the beginning of December, I woke up one morning to find a text from my mother asking for prayers for her sister Ate Fe. She was my mother’s closest sister – her confidante, the one she turns to in times of despair. Despite the many times that Ate Fe has conned her…my mother has forgiven her many times over and has welcomed her back with open arms. Ate Fe has become a semi-permanent fixture in our lives – especially there in our times of trouble – like when our babysitter just quits and we had no one to accompany us at home while both our parents are at work… she would willingly leave her abode and be there for us. Or when our weekly labandera/plantsadora failed to report for work…she’d be there and do the laundry and ironing chores (for my mother’s sake!) Or when an older relative dies or suddenly falls sick and my mom had to go to some far-flung province to take care of said ailing relative – she’d be there always willing and able to accompany Mama as they accomplish their earthly missions.

When I finally saw her body …I couldn’t believe it was actually her… no, it isn’t that I didn’t want to accept that she was dead (or maybe that was a bit part of it) but because her picture in death was not exactly as I recalled her to be – always fun and lively – with a kind word or two to everyone she meets. In death, she seemed sad, desperate even – as if totally unwilling to let go of the people she knew would be left behind… The people who were with her in her last moments recall that she kept praying to God not to take her just yet. But I guess God has other plans … and it’s for us to just accept it.

Though I lived so far from them and was often not able to visit them during family affairs … I decided to attend her funeral rites to pay my last respects to a woman who has stood by my mother no matter what --- and at the same time be her rock of support. As the last cries of Ate Fe’s sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren echoed on that fateful afternoon, I heard my mother whisper words of comfort to finally let Ate Fe go in peace and accept what happened --- I just hope she takes these words to heart and not dwell on her grief and sadness too much.

The second event was a wedding of a close friend in the office – both of them are our officemates and no…it wasn’t a sad occasion for us that they got married but rather a truly poignant one. They have been together for quite some time already – maybe as long as we have been together – they have three kids na together and they all stood as sponsors to the event. It was a pretty picture that the family made…and why am I writing about this? Well, I was just wondering why they got married at all…no, I don’t mean that in a bad way…it was just that I figured the cost of having a church wedding is so high these days so I was thinking why they had to bother when they were already married in civil rights in the first place???

If you ask me, I wouldn’t waste money on a church wedding…maybe if we renew our vows in like…fifteen, twenty or even twenty-five years, maybe that’s the time I would get married in church or have a priest solemnize our vows…Sure, every girl dreams of walking down the church aisle in a long white dress and the man of your dreams at the end of the altar with a choir serenading in the background…but I don’t have the extra money for it…I’d rather spend it on the kids’ education and the regular upkeep of the household…but that’s just me! Back to the couple friend of ours – I wish them luck in keeping their marriage…it’s gonna be tough-sailing…well, that’s what every marriage has to go through, even one like ours. Here’s wishing all of us lots of luck and love to keep the flames of togetherness alive for many more years to come.

New Year resolution

I know, I know it’s another late post but please bear with me… I’m still not a hundred percent back in writing mode--- I guess this writer’s block (if you may call it that) is a bit more complicated to cure and even quite harder to simply ignore… I guess that should also explain why I do not find the need to write a whole bunch of promises for the year…which I never really get to keep anyway. In fact, this piece’s title should be self-explanatory – there is only one promise to myself which I intend to make – just one… and that is to not push myself to do something that I don’t intend to finish; not to bite any more than I could chew --- just take each day as it comes… maybe I can write in this blog everyday…maybe once a week…maybe once in a month… It doesn’t really matter – what matters is that I find the time and the inclination to write – without any pressure from me or anyone else…