Our sister, Josie

Our eldest sister, Josie, has gone home to the Lord last January 18.. She is free at last from physical pain brought about by her battle with ovarian cancer which spread on throughout her lungs.  She passed away peacefully in the presence of our sister, Chit, who has been taking care of her. 

It pains to think that Ate Josie, a beautiful fashionable social butterfly, who had lots and lots of friends from all walks of life (media, movies, singers, composers, socialites, business women/men, professionals, mostly doctors owing to her past career as a supervisor with Organon, clergy, etc.) is gone!  Although we, her sisters and 1 brother) knew it was coming, still we had hoped that she would not be taken away this year.  I have many happy memories of the times when as a teenager, she would take me to some office parties they held.  I knew then that she was proud of me teling her office mates that I am a good dancer.  Then of course, our usual summer vacations in Baguio, our beach excursions, our Christmas reunions, or any family gathering where her contribution would always be "pancit" from Marikina...the term for this noodle dish escapes me at the moment...

Occasionally, she would drop by our house to show some of her "goods"...for she always had many goods to sell after every travel she makes yearly!  She has gone to many Asian , European and Western countries that each time, she has goods to sell from these trips: clothes, jewelry, perfumes, shoes, handbags, etc...that her house was almost like a department store!  On many occasions, she has saved me when i needed to gift anyone and did not have time to shop..I would call her up and ask if I can drop by her house to "shop."  And true enough, one never leaves her house without taking an interest in her goods.

She  is our source of news as to who passed away in our far away relatives or who is hospitalized, etc.  She has a lot of juicy news after each party or gathering she has attended...we, her sisters, would gather around and she was a good story teller! 

I bet she now regales our mother, our father, her son Topher, Papa Cente, Mama Ising, Ate Maxie, our grandparents, etc. of stories about us whom she has left behind. I am sure she was welcomed by these departed loved ones...and they are having one great reunion up there!

Rest in peace with the Lord, Ate Josie.  You deserve that heavenly peace!