To have a family of her own, is perhaps, every girl’s fantasy during my time. Thoughts of her dream lad while walking down the aisle with the wedding bliss and thoughts of bearing children as a traditional "essence of being a woman" make each little girl long for such a happy family. As simple as that, these thoughts, these dreams – they are woven just like the fairy tales: meeting the prince to marry and settle down for the story to have a happy ending.
It’s all as simple as that, not until I knew Joy.
Joy was a typical rural girl back then. As the eldest among her brothers and sisters, she got acquainted with the hardships of life at a very early age. Childhood, indeed, was too short for her since she had to assist her father in the rice fields while she was still young. As she grew, the more she knew how poor they were. She had to be away from her family to work while studying. Too seldom did she have the chance to play with her younger brothers and sisters. And as her brothers and sisters grew, they had to work on their own as well to help for their family’s finances and to continue studying. As each of them worked, being together was definitely a rare moment.
Separate lives -distant, busy, independent- Joy and her brothers and sisters were then used to working far away from one another. Separation thus became an irrevocable sorrow for them because they would forever lose the enjoyable memories that they could have shared if only they were together. The closeness that siblings of other families share cannot grow anymore among them though how much she tried. Poverty snatched this closeness away from them.
So when Joy went to Manila to work and finish college, she built her dream of having a family, a family that will grow in closeness and togetherness----something that she had not experienced with her family before. Since then, it had become her personal vow.
But life wasn’t easy for her. When she reached her late twenties, still, she feared that she would no longer attain her dream. The sight of old maids among her colleagues in her teaching profession seemed to strengthen more this fear. She prayed hard that her present boyfriend at that time would ask her to marry him. She was not getting any younger to bear children as time progresses, she thought.
One day, during her usual class discussion as a college professor, she met an unusual student, who was supposed to be in that room only after her class and yet, he chose to stay. Since then, this guy became her student, to her surprise.
And one day, while she was discussing two nouns that can take a singular form like "spoon and fork is. . . " and "bread and butter is", she asked her students to give their own examples.
The guy, the unusual students, raised his hand while grinning.
She trembled, this student was up to something. But she could not anymore avoid calling him for he was enthusiastically raising his hand.
My sweet and heart go together.
The class laughed with the guy’s answer.
And that was the start of the guy wooing her. She was really afraid that she would be older than he would be. So she wished hard that the guy might slip in their conversations and spill his age.
She found our later that the guy is two years older than she, to her relief. And later that year, too, they were married.
She was 30 years old then and happy.
Today, Joy has four siblings: with 23 years old as the eldest and 14 years old as the youngest. And until this very day, they live closely together in prayers and harmony though how many storms passed their home. She is blessed with a very loving husband and talented children.
Joy is still teaching today, with her students as her extended children. Her students and her family----- they are more than a dream-come-true.
I placed my hand above my chest, closed my eyes and whispered a prayer--- thankful to God that I have found Joy in my heart.
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