Today would have been my in-laws 52nd Wedding Anniversary!!
Only, my father-in-law passed last November… just days before Thanksgiving and a month after my son’s 1st Birthday.

Over the course of nearly 14 years I’ve come to really know and love my in-laws, I’m truly blessed with some good ones! My sweet mother-in-law fights her sadness every day since his passing and my heart aches in response.

I look back over the time I had with Sonny and know how lucky I am to have had him as a funny, witty (seriously always joking) and strong man to have been my father-in-law.
What he has left is a legacy of fatherhood that I know my husband is proud to step into and I’m happy to let him!
(Wellll… all, expect for that damn annoying “SssshhtttT” that Filipinos seem so proud to accomplish and exact, which instills jitters in any remotely Filipino human who happens to be nearby!)
What my husband has is a sense of over-protectiveness that I don’t have (just a product of my upbringing) which does equal out my somewhat caviler attitude with our son… ‘let him explore’! 🙂
My husband, also, has a very beautiful sense of love and emotion that he pours on Bean every chance he gets… I know my boy will grow up knowing his father loved him, just as I know Dano grew up knowing such from his own father!

That is something I am grateful for!

Oh! Sure-sure… there were times I rolled my eyes at some of the thoughts he choose to verbalize… so we’d have a chat and he’d listen with an open-mind and apologetic heart.

Regardless, he was such an upstanding guy and I am…
~ Grateful for those fourteen years that I had him in my life!
~ Grateful that Dano and I choose to take a ‘babymoon’ road trip, while I was 7mth pregnant, up to Oregon (and down the Coast) for my in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary!
~ Very Grateful that we choose to fly to Portland multiple times, from the Bay Area, with our little baby, so that he could be doted on by his loving Lolo (and all family!)
~ Grateful and so happy that Bean’s 1st Year Birthday Party took place in Portland… this allowed Sonny an opportunity to rejoice in the life of the new little Buendia in our lives… Bean and Lolo had so much fun that day playing and stomping canes! Ha! That was a sight… and Sonny was overjoyed with smiles!

Thank goodness for the times we did have… Thank goodness for the opportunity we had to help Sonny make hard decisions regarding his health and time at home!

It seems he passed way too soon… but 83 years is, truly, a lifetime… and Sonny, Sweet Sonny lived them well… and kindly!

With fond memories I share this post… thinking of all my in-laws and Sonny’s spirit with us! Blessings!