BEING A MOTHER AND PROVIDER

by: Norberto Betita

SNNHS '69er Florpina Aragon-Paredes

At eventide during holidays or even in ordinary days when the moon stretches its dazzling light, we usually go to her parent’s home and invite her for a stroll at the pier to feel the gentle sea breeze. Sitting by the edge of the dock or on reclined concrete debris we would chat together with friends and classmates while gazing at the beauty of the full moon. She is very friendly and accommodating. We enjoyed her treats, especially during Barrio fiestas and birthdays. 

SNNHS ‘69er FLORPINA ARAGON was very close to her high school friends even the boys. She had that aura that shines and attracts from within. She was no match to the outward beauty of many, yet the charm of her smile; the simplicity and modesty of her looks; the humility and meekness of her expressions created a unique charisma and attraction to those around her. There was in her a kind of magnetism that pulled friendship into her circle. She was small, but had a big heart. She was one of those studious students in our elite class. Late in high school she expressed a desire to be a Doctor someday, an ambition she carried through graduation.

With sister, son, daughter-in-law & friend
during graduation

For no expressed reason, she set aside her ambition for a medical course and instead enrolled at the Southwestern University in Cebu City in a program leading to a degree in Zoology. That was a shift which most of her classmates and friends were caught in surprise. Yet she proceeded with gusto. It was never known whether she was eventually fascinated by the study of animals along the path of her four-year schooling. Conceivably she found enjoyment all along the length of the course and finally graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Zoology. As she returned home to Surigao City, she was kind of confused as to the career path to pursue. Puzzled where to find an employment that will match her interest on animals, she decided to just share her theoretical knowledge and so landed in a teaching job at the then Surigao del Norte School of Arts and Trades (now Surigao State College of Technology).

Subsequently she married a policeman who gave her the family name of Paredes. The marital union was blessed with a daughter and a son. There was colossal happiness and joy as she and her husband joined hand in hand in shared parental responsibilities. Her motherhood ability and capacity to handle odds shine even as she leaves the confines of home for her teaching career. The children to her were such very cherished and precious pearls which no worldly fortune can equate. Each child is preeminent and is of paramount priority. However, while the children were yet in their tender years a discomfiting misfortune strikes its dread and terror resulting to family disarray and eventual unwanted separation and estrangement.

With grandchildren

The once shimmering horizon of her life was covered with darkened clouds of increased uncertainties. The beautiful fertile field she trailed was then occupied with thorns and thistles and a mire to cross. The family resources were reduced by half while her responsibilities were multiplied twice as much. Nowhere could she run for help but to herself. Extended families offered their generous hands, but the real bulk of family accountability and obligation remained in her gentle and weary hands. In the agony and pain of being a mother and father; a homemaker and provider of the family she seemed to feel that "Working mothers are guinea pigs in a scientific experiment to show that sleep is not necessary to human life." (Anonymous). Yet she failed not in her duty to care, to teach, to nurse, to foster, to nurture her two angels which she considers to be a heavenly trust. "At work, [she] think[s] of the children [she] have left at home. At home, [she] think[s] of the work [she'd] left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within [herself]. [Her] heart is rent." (Golda Meir).

With high school classmates during a reunion

However, before her vision are beautifully and excellently painted the picture of the future of her son and daughter. She looked at it with gist and confidence. Such striking panorama conceived and viewed in the telescopic lens of her mind became a continuing motivation to endure well her life’s race. Like an eagle to her eaglets up in the sky, she guided her children to look beyond the present and behold the beautiful landscape that the future holds. She had all her available time utilized to teach the children correct principles and the value of education in their lives. She set aside plans for professional growth and concentrated on building the future of her children instead. She enjoyed their little accomplishments and loved their frailties. She toiled, she struggled, she mothered, she fathered, she loved, and so spawned bones of steel and a heart of gold. 

Sometimes in the course of raising and rearing her children she felt like hearing the words of James Baldwin: "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." The children had since grown into righteous adolescents and later as responsible adults. Her daughter Tara May graduated from the University of the Philippines---Diliman. She is now gainfully employed and has a family of her own. Her son Francis who became a concern for marrying at a very young age eventually graduated from college under her untiring guiding hands. He is now a teacher and recently earned a master’s degree in education. He is now a writer and a member of the Philippine Linguistics Society. Perhaps there is no greater accomplishment of being a mother and provider than to see her children trudged a much better road than her own and to know that all that she has done as a single mother has never been wasted.

She may not have been endowed with material boons, but her consecrated and indefatigable efforts imbued in her children a parental paragon worthy of emulation. The love and respect of her children had been multiplied ten times or more. Her sacrifices had been reciprocated and recompensed many times over. The clouds of uncertainties dissipated as she now walks the isles of her twilight on feeble knees and sometimes on faltering feet yet full of hope for her children and posterity. Such is a legacy of success that cannot be exhibited on a cinematic screen, nor counted by weights and measures. It stays in quiet silence in the chamber of the heart and in muted undertones of the memory.

She will probably be retiring in three years, and will be best prepared to attend our SNNHS ‘69ers golden jubilee reunion comes 2019.