I ve noticed how grief is not a taboo subject in our local TV or magazines. Just a few years ago, the only grief article you will read in our local papers are by . I turned down the invitation because there are other touching stories from a lot of bereaved parents.
I referred the production staff to a newly bereaved couple. This parent whose adult son died a year ago on a December month will be featured for that Christmas epsidoe (I will announce the schedule of the show later on). I can talk all I want about , our local grief support group and how it helps bereaved families but it won t have an impact unless a parent actually shares on how the group has helped them with their grief journey.
The parent didn t believe in sharing her grief. Grief is a private matter, they thought. She didn t even want her deceased son s visitors to cry during the funeral.
They were fine for a month or so until they could not handle their pain anymore. One day they read our article in the . They cut the article and pinned it to their bulletin board.
Looking at the pinned article everyday for two weeks, they finally found the courage to contact us. The rest is history.
Today marks the first year anniversary of Philippines. Co-founded by , , myself and our spouses, we continue to bring monthly meetings to newly bereaved or seasoned grievers.
A year ago, when I first told my eldest daughter about The Compassionate Friends, she seemed worried So what will you be doing? Talking about your dead babies?
My other daughter asked Won t you get depressed hearing sad stories?
I stopped and thought for a minute it is incredibly sad to hear the stories of loss and pain, but it does not depress me. I ache for those families whose loss is more recent, where the pain is a heart savagely torn into raw pieces and where the pain seems relentless and like it will last forever. But I am further along in my grief journey and I have gone through so much pain that I have learned my lessons well.
I don t know how I made it this far . I don t know how I kept my sanity, through the past years when there were no grief support around. I know for certain that my grief journey, as hard as it has been, was made easier, and my burden lighter, through the grace of God.
He was the one who enlightened me to start this support group.
The two girls arrived home last night due to the upcoming storm Reming but they were craving DOUGHNUTS. Uh not now dears.
It s late! I promised to buy them Krispy Kreme Doughnuts by waking up early for their Opening Day. Well, today is the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Opening Day at the City Center, Global City.
Bringing my mug of coffee to perk me up , I drove over to the City Center at 6:30 AM. There were like hundreds of people crazier than I am who dared to wake up early just to order the first batches of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
Would someone be crazy enough to create a stampede? They promised to open the door by 8:30 am. US Ambassador Kristie Kelly and Congressman Alan Cayetano cut the ribbon which officially launched Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in the Philippines.
I didn t catch the name of the lucky first customer who won a free supply of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. It was my secret wish to win one of the raffle prizes but alas, it was not meant to be.
With the hundreds of people in the city center, Krispy Kreme did a pretty good job of organizing the smooth flow of customers in and out of the shop. There were hundreds and hundreds of doughnuts to be sold. Even Go Nuts Donuts could not cope with the influx of orders when they first launched a few years ago.
After all that hassle and waking up early to be one of the first 500 customers, was it worth it? Not really. As consolation, I ended up with:
I kept getting these text messages from my daughter, M the past two weeks now Don t forget to order starbucks coffee . Yesterday another text message came I need 13 more stickers and I get the starbucks planner.
whee I showed the text message to a friend. My friend smirked My two daughters are also crazy over their planners. I am looking for the supplier so I will just get from them .
Curious over these planners, my friend and I transferred over to the Starbucks Coffee just to take a look at the sample planner. Flipping through the pages, it s no wonder my daughter is crazy enough to drink starbucks coffee to avail of it. Inside the pages are really cutesy keepsake envelopes.
The planner seems like a mini scrapbook of sorts to hold in precious mementos. I can t possibly drink 13 cups of coffee! Even if I could afford to drink Starbucks coffee every single day, it s boring.
Drinking in coffee shops is something I do once a week or whenever I meet a client. With this rate, it will take 3 months to complete the 13 stickers.
I don t want my daughter to starve and use her allowance to buy coffee.
Starbucks really knows how to increase their sales this Christmas season. Obviously they are targetting the young crowd. I told my daughter that I couldn t possibly drink all that coffee but I d increase her allowance for the next few weeks .
I considered the costs involved.
The planner needs 21 stickers (9 are for Starbucks featured Christmas beverages while 12 for Starbucks beverages of your choice). The cheapest price for regular drink is 80 pesos (I think) so that s 960 pesos while Christmas drinks at 125 pesos minimum 1125 pesos for a total of 2085 pesos ($42) to complete the 21 stickers.
How expensive. Looking at the bright side, Starbucks Christmas tradition is not just about increasing sales.
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