Now it's called happy love mail

"I am guilty of pushing snail mail on you just about every other blog post. But you know how when you discover something really great, you want to tell everyone about it? That’s me with snail mail … since, like, 1996, when I figured out how to write...My hope is that if you currently have trouble thinking of reasons to write letters, you’ll be inspired to churn one out this weekend." -

I agree with Ms. Bugbee's view, and I'm also pushing snail mail in my blog apart from the Artists Trading Cards movement. Mine isn't a physically demonstrative family. Rolly, Kimi, Ida and I show a physical demonstration of love that overflows on The Wee One who is just learning how to write. Among ourselves (the four adults), we write, email and text.

While I was researching for an Inquirer article on the advantages of writing love letters in longhand, Rolly lent me the correspondence among family members and friends that he had safeguarded all these decades. Reading them brought long and vivid flashbacks to time spent on other parts of the archipelago and of the world. So I thank you, my Valentine of almost 31 years, our family's philatelist, for keeping these written records.

My first postcard to The Wee One mailed from Bohol where Rolly and I marked our 30th or pearl anniversary as a married couple.

The Tintin card I bought at the newly opened Tintin shop in Singapore's Chinatown in 2012. I used it as a get-well card to family members when the cold was circulating in the Baguio house. I can sound like a quack doctor during medical emergencies.

Poet Luisa A. Igloria thinking of what kind of old women she and I will be. We're almost there, Luisa!

Our dear daughter Kimi writes to her folks from Macau although they were travelling as a family here.

From Nanay to Tatay who write to one another even as they travel together

A father's contrite note to his daughters after he loses their list of what to buy for them as pasalubongin Hongkong

A postcard from our kumpare, Wilson Bailon, then Senate reporter of Manila Chronicle and who was invited by the US government to observe a presidential campaign in progress

From a man of scanty words to his wife and travel companion. The postcard with a photo by Tommy Hafalla was mailed from the town of Sagada, Mountain Province

Another postcard from Thailand from journalist Frank Cimatu, who's a diehard Noranian, to my daughter Kimi

The most precious item in Rolly Fernandez's collection: a postcard from then Foreign Affairs Secretary Carlos P. Romulo addressed to Rolly's then boss Neal H. Cruz. The card was lying around on the untidy common news desk, and Rolly as is his wont, "saved" it. Must be worth something in e-Bay.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Pink Valentine

“I’m always thinking about food ,” so said Julia Child channeled by Meryl Streep in the movie “Julie/Julia,” my flavorite of the year. Food has been foremost, too, in my life since a round of reunions with various friends started last month.

I remember a subtle aperitif served at the weekend getaway home of Rina and Pie David in Cavite: Rina Darling. It was a husband’s tribute to a foodie wife—folded pita bread with cheese, ham/salami, tomatoes and not-so-secret herbs. We know Rina to be a diabetic, but at that potluck lunch of our media women’s group advocating health, Pie came up to her quietly and served her a small slice of a Red Ribbon cake brought by one of the “gurlz.” Rina acknowledged him with barely a nod and continued her animated peroration about sex education for children and the youth.

Last Tuesday over supper at Happy Homes, Baguio, with another gal pal, Toottee Chanco Pacis, she told me of one instance when her husband Oscar, who leads our Saturday Bible fellowship, reprimanded her. He spotted her eating leche flan, a no-no for her, also a diabetic. He said, “You’re killing yourself, Babes!” She smiled at him, continued daintily bringing teaspoonfuls of the Philippine jello into her mouth and said, “Babes, I might be actually prolonging my life by eating this. Think of the pleasure it gives me, the joy of its taste.” He let her be.

Yesterday my three-day retreat ended with lunch with two ICM nuns. We shared a healthy meal of dinengdeng and steamed fish. An hour later, my partner picked me up. Back at his office, he asked me to edit a news feature, to trim it down by a thousand characters. After the task/favor was done, he told me he’d treat me to dinner—anywhere I liked. I said, “Mann Hann,” since it was close to the lunar New Year and I had a sudden craving for Chinese food. My wish was granted, including a request for a dessert of frozen yogurt. Fat-free but not entirely sugar-free.

Indulgent spouses—couldn’t dream of a better Valentine.

Photo of a butter flower plucked from Rina Jimenez David’s garden by ANNA LEAH SARABIA