YESTERDAY, the second Sunday of May, was Mother’s Day. This was the proclamation made by then President Corazon Aquino in 1988 and made June’s third Sunday Father’s Day.

We salute all the Mothers. Many great men of the world owe their greatness to their mothers. No person can give the love to the child more than a mother can.

That is why we describe an ugly child as one who has the face only a mother can love.

I recall my own late mother as the best in the world, very saintly. She spent hours before sleeping praying the novenas. All of us children had a patron saint. Mine is the Santo Niño.

And she asked us to join the prayers. I had the bad habit of sleeping before the start of the first “Ora pro mobis.” We used to pray in Latin and it means “Pray for us,” answering the litany of saints.

Poet Coleridge wrote, that a mother is a mother, the holiest thing alive. And Abraham Lincoln once said, he owed everything to his mother. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote men are what their mothers made them.

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It is only a mother who can provide the feeling of security to a child. I recall when there was a very loud thunder, especially in these months and children are always afraid of thunder, only the embrace of a mother can take away the fear.

And no one will fight for you as a child as ferociously as a mother.

You can see it in the animals. Dogs, cats, even hens. Be careful of dogs which have young puppies.

The bravest battle ever was fought, wrote poet Joaquin Miller was the battle fought by mothers.

“The bravest battle ever was fought/ Shall I tell you where and when?/ On the maps of the world you will find it not,/ It was fought by the mothers of men.”

For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.

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The poets that I quoted were all men. Let’s listen to women pay tribute to mothers.

Anne Taylor wrote, “Who ran to help me when I fell,/ And would some pretty story tell,/ Or kiss the place to make it well? My mother.”

Yes, I remember it myself. Whenever I felt pain in some parts of my body, and my mother kissed it, the pain would go away.

And here’s another lady poet paying tribute to a mother. Rida Johnson Young wrote, “Sure, I love dear silver that shines in your hair,/ And the brow that’s all furrowed and wrinkled with care,/ I kiss the dear fingers, as well worn for me,/ Oh, God bless you and keep you, Mother Machree.”

If your mother is still around and you did not hug and kiss her yesterday on Mother’s Day, go hug and kiss her now, a little payment for the years that she brought you up.

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The original Rockefeller, the great John D., in his biography I remember told a story about his disciplinarian mother.

He was whipped enough and when he complained that it was more punishment for a minor error, his mother told him, “Don’t worry. That will be recorded to your credit for future offense.”

In his biography, too, General Douglas MacArthur is the only West Pointer whose mother boarded near West Point to be with him while he was studying there. Douglas’ father, General Arthur MacArthur was in the Philippines on an assignment when his son was studying at West Point.

So, the mother preferred to be near her son.

Mother! How about mother-in-law? I am also happy to have a very good mother-in-law. Yes, good to me.

An accused was asked by a judge, “What is the best penalty for a bigamist?” His answer was quick. “Having two mothers-in-law is more than enough.”

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So much for mothers and mothers-in-law, sometimes called murder-in-law.

There is betting among friends, will Malacañang take over Meralco?

One side believes government will not because it will be a trap to ensnare the President. Electricity rates will never go down but up and up. Everytime it goes up, the President will be blamed.

And you like it or not, government does not have  the efficiency of a private corporation to make Meralco viable.

But another group believes the people around the President will convince her to take it and they take over. They will find a gold mine there, I was told.

Tomorrow I will write about the intermittent brownouts and power outages, affected by the coal factor.*

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