Stubborn for love Proud for family

Stubborn for love Proud for family

Mama, Grandma, Lola with her brood of three generations

By David Briscoe

For those of you who don’t know me, I am David Chesley Briscoe Jr., who along with Jess Villanueva, was the very first to be brought into this magnificent lady’s family, four decades ago. I speak now in her honor and memory for all of us who have become Aureuses, for those of us who have added new names to Mama’s progeny and legacy — Villanueva, Briscoe, Calce, Lopez with a “z” and soon to be Lopes with an “s”, Marestela, Geisinger, Terhune, Scott, del Carmen, Buensuceso and more.

We are family, in Canada, in America and in the Philippines — and always will be, with our dear departed matriarch as a primary source of our light, our joy and our love.
Angeles Gorgonia Javier was born on the impoverished Philippine island of Samar on March 30, 1921. She traveled north to find new adventures in life and love in the arms of a brave guerrilla leader, Leon Sa. Aureus, who became the first post-war mayor of the biggest city in the Bicol Region, Naga City.

As her oldest living grandson says, while Papa rebuilt Naga after the devastation of World War II, she raised eight children.

So, today we remember not only the first lady of our family, but a real first lady who came to Canada to work hard — very hard as a proud hotel chambermaid — to raise up her family. We all sing with Junior, “You Raise me up.”

She also became a luminary of the Ontario Filipino community, as she overcame all hardship challenges that life brought her.

We all have different memories of our Angel Mother and Grandmother.

My daughter Narra, who lives in Bosnia with her family, says when she was 5 years old, “Lola taught me how to make a hotel-perfect bed when she came to visit us in Salt Lake City, and to this day – no joke – every single time I tuck my pillow under my comforter like she showed me, I think of her. When I think of Lola I think of her telling us cousins to “Sleep already!” and to “Eat already!”, but I also think of her style, her big dark glasses, and her love of dancing and music.”

We all have good memories of Mama, and maybe a few not so good.

She could be stubborn, but always for love.

She could be proud, but always for family.

She could be critical, but always for good reason.

She could even be mean, but it was usually, if not always, for our own failings.

In the end, we all new it was us, not Mama, who needed to adjust, to change our attitude, to mellow, to forgive.

And in the end, she forgave us all. She rests in peace. She rests in love.

Now, I ask for a few moments of silence, where we should each think of our very best memory of Mama, of what she sacrificed for each of us, and of strong faith in Jesus Christ she takes with her to the next life.

Mabalos, Mama. Thank you forever, Grandma, Mama, Lola Hollywood!

(Shortened version)