Latecomer

It was her wedding.

It was her son's baptism.

They were two different women. But they both have special place in my heart.

Melinda, the first woman. She texted me in the middle of March this year to ask me to make an invitation card for her wedding. And I did it good. April 15 came and I was assigned as master of the ceremonies for the reception program. I waqs prepared to do the task. Afterall, I'm not new at it. It was eight in the morning when I texted Gary, one of my students before and Melinda's classmate in college. He made a quick reply. We decided to to meet at nine. It took an hour to travel from my place to the city. Though, Melinda's wedding mass' place is only a 20-minute ride from my place. I still have to to fixed things for the program and the same time, fetching Gary in the city. It was nine thirty when finally Gary texted me to meet somewhere. The best thing was, he didn't know where to find the location I referred him as our meeting place. At our meeting place, I saw many of our company. After long hours of finding the rendezvous, Gary finally saw us and we finally start our journey at nine forty five.

The wedding will be at ten but we didn't expect to arrive at the church very late. Seeing the couple during her recessional is a big shame on us. But somehow there still the wedding reception. Good thing I delivered it with flying colors!

Gloria, the second woman. She's Melinda's classmate. She borne a son out of wedlock in May 5, 2009. She texted me to attend her son's baptism on August 5, 2009. I decided to go although I know the place isn;t just an hour of travel but almost four hours from my place.

I am suppose to go with the father of the child but it didn't happen. For whatever reason, I don't know. And so on the day of baptism, I was texted by Gary to go with him. Gary again! He was the same Gary I was with on Melinda's wedding. Lack of choices I decided to go with him. We are suppose to go at ten in the morning but he refused. He was waiting for his girlfriend from Bacolod. She will be with us to Gloria's son's baptism. And so the ten a.m. schedule was moved to 12 noon. Taking the bus at 12:30 doesn't mean leaving the terminal. We waited for almost half an hour for the bus to take off. We reached Gloria's place at 2:45...

The eleven a.m. schedule was too far from our arrival. But we still ate a lot.

Two men, two lates for two women's important occasions. Anyway, its better late than never...