Glistening eyes were glued at the doors of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo, Hercules, as love ones and parishioners watched not one but six couples marched down the aisle.
Love was in the air noontime last December 30 for a dozen lovebirds who wanted their years of being together convalidated with Fr. Larry Young officiating over the sacrament of matrimony.
As the couples knelt to exchange their “I dos,” close friends and love ones reminisce how it all started.
Retiree Ricky and seamstress Alma Delgado were introduced to each other in 1995 by a common friend and dated. Ricardo fell ill of brain aneurism and survived but had to endure separation from Alma when she worked in the Middle East in 2003. A year later, Ricardo migrated to the USA and the lovebirds parted ways. Alma traced Ricardo at his Cavite residence. Their renewed correspondence revealed Ricardo remained a bachelor and so, they got together again at a simple civil wedding in July 2010.
Nurses Danny and Genevieve Ramirez were both working in 2010 at a rehabilitation and nursing care center in Marin. Soon enough they were also together hiking, skiing, snowboarding, biking and weekend camping in the mountains of Canada, Tahoe, Marin headlands, Lake Chabot’s winding hills or camping out and savoring the twinkling stars above the sky of Yosemite. In 2014, Genevieve thought she was only watching video outtakes of their Hayward through Hercules run. When she answered the doorbell, there was Danny on his knees and popping out the most important question with a ring.
She gladly accepted. That same year, they united in civil wedding and they had Danielle Genna.
It was not love at first sight when Chris and Charito Dobson first met at their workplace in 2000. Friendship blossomed into romance and soon enough even with their diverse background bickering and obstacles, they ended up in a civil wedding in 2006.
Jun and Dianne Asuncion’s fateful meeting at a relative’s home in Las Pinas was inconsequential. Jun was reeling from caring for his cancer-stricken wife whom he lost years later. But in July 22, 2011, they finally got married in Makati and had two beautiful children. Jun and Dianne look forward to a renewal of their vows sas they pray for strength in their married life.
Love bloomed in Kuala Lumpur in 1996 for neighbors Eduard and Hilda Salvador who first met at a birthday party of an officemate. Ed suffered a mild stroke while in Malaysia that necessitated his return to Manila. In late January 1998, Hilda visited him at his house in Manila and stayed to comfort Ed.
Hilda’s conservative mother was not pleased and promptly required union to be legal. Ed and Hilda were then married in San Jose, Batangas on February 4, 1998 with a of handful of their nearest of kins witnessing the civil wedding.
The introduction of retiree Paquito and accountant Annie Cabural began an exchange of sweet thoughts through texts and calls in March 2007. When she was 40, Annie and Paquito married in civil court in September 2007. After four months of honeymoon in the Philippines, Paquito started the petition process for the legal migration of Annie that was finally realized in March 2009. In 2012, they attended the Christian Life Program (CLP) of Couples for Christ (CFC) where they realized their union had to be blessed in the Catholic church. (Feddie Espiritu)
