There’s a ‘scene stealer’ at my friend’s wedding!

When my dear college friend Christine Cabrera married Eric Daniel Dennis in an intimate sunset garden wedding, the sprightly father-of-the-bride, for a while, stole the thunder from the couple by shedding quiet, unbidden tears. And the scene-stealing act was a welcome moment.

Christine’s father, Eusebio Cabrera, 88, a widower and former chief engineer at Pilipinas Shell, suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. But as he walked his daughter down the aisle, he “woke up” from the fog that shrouded his memory. Instantaneously he was lucid, like he snapped out of a deep slumber. He recognized his daughter and he knew he was giving her away that moment in time. Profuse tears welled in his eyes. His four alpha male sons — Ferdie, Maning, Alex and Eric — drenched themselves in tears, too. Like Christine, her four older brothers were just so happy their father was in the moment. Even the 50 guests at the intimate wedding held at Villa Natura Taal in Batangas were misty-eyed.

It was a picture of love when Christine melted in her father’s arms. Rain poured. So did love.

On Dec. 3, Christine knew God was present when she exchanged “I do” with Eric. What better proof of God’s existence there is than her father being fully aware of how important that day was for her. Even for a moment.

“Papa has advanced Alzheimer’s disease. He lives mostly in a fog and his moments of lucidity are very rare. He would ask the same question again and again, and often, he would just sit quietly, alone in his own world,” said Christine, who has been living in California for 17 years now. She works as a senior marketing executive for ACT•1 Group.

The day before the wedding, while the family was readying the barong Tagalog of the Cabrera brothers, their father asked what was going on. Christine recounted, “We told him that there is going to be a wedding, that we are here so he can be part of it. We didn’t really expect him to react, and he didn’t the first few times we explained to him. Then suddenly, he asked, ‘What am I going to wear?’ I jumped up, grabbed his barong and showed him, ‘We got you this beautiful barong...You are going to look so handsome in it!’

“And he smiled this giant, beautiful smile. I said, ‘Would you like to try it on?’ He grinned and nodded. We all looked at each other in delighted disbelief. And with surprising dexterity, he helped us dress him. He looked and acted like Papa again for the first time in years. We walked him to the mirror and he stood up straight and proud, totally pleased with how he looked.”

A jamboree of happy emotions was already in the air. As if it was not enough, the father-of-the-bride started to “interrogate” Eric.

“Do you work here or in the US?” the father-of-the-bride asked Eric.

“In the US, sir,” answered Eric, a ship captain and a licensed realtor in California. He captained the ship that retrieved the SpaceX space capsule when it returned to earth from the International Space Station.

“So, you are going back there after the wedding?”

“Yes, sir.”

“With Christine?”

“Yes, sir, we live there.”

And Christine’s dad began to tear up and shake his head. When Christine and her “macho brothers” all started crying, he said, “I’m not saying no...I’m just shaking my head.” Everybody laughed.

Christine said, “Papa, who was barely communicating, ‘woke up.’ And he had so many lucid moments and even smiled a lot. Our collective hearts all but burst.”

* * *

Christine, in her own words, met her match in Eric.

“Eric and I are cut from the same cloth, he is one of my kind. He is my hero, but also my baby. He challenges me while making me feel cherished. He inspires me to keep up, yet always makes me feel like a keeper,” she said.

It was not love at first sight when they met. Eric tried to take Christine out to dinner, then drinks, then lunch. But she did not budge. Finally, she said yes when he cut down the invitation to just coffee.

From that coffee date on Nov. 9, 2014 at Portfolio Café in Long Beach, they sealed their romance on Dec. 3 at Villa Natura Taal, a dreamy two-hectare mountain resort in Batangas City that has the perfect backdrop of Taal Lake and Taal Volcano.

Christine did not want a structured wedding so Binky Reyna-Pantastico, a college friend and the wedding planner behind the Los Baños-based For Keeps Events Specialist, made sure the bride’s wish would be implemented. Binky and her team did a good job. Instead of a fresh nosegay, Christine romped down the aisle with a bridal bouquet made of raffia and wood shavings. It was a work of art! And the traditional wedding cake was left in the back burner, so to speak, to give way to buco pie. Eric loves to eat coconut.

Methinks the buco pie symbolizes Christine’s pride of place, UP Los Baños, where she took up BA Sociology. It was in UPLB where Christine and I met and became close friends in 1988. So, on her wedding day, some members of the Lalapalooza Gang, the name we call our group, were present, as well as Christine’s best friends from elementary and high school.

The wedding was so intimate that you could hear the funny side comments of the guests when the pastor asked for the wedding rings and nobody could produce them. Yes, for about five minutes, the rings were missing. But they were found — in Christine’s room, which was right beside the porch where the ceremony was being held.

* * *

Everyone swooned at the exchange of vows. Christine’s father and her brothers, the men “who set the gold standard” when it comes to the ideal man for her, were all ears when Eric recited his vow. He took out a big notebook from his side pocket and with a lilting voice that spoke of romance, Eric looked at Christine straight in the eye, and said: “You have taught me that two people joined together with respect, trust and open communication can be far stronger and happier than each could be alone. You are the strength I didn’t know I needed and the joy I didn’t know I lacked…I promise to love you for who you are and for who you are yet to become. I promise to be patient, and to remember that all things between us are rooted in love…You are my everything, Christine.”

After the exchange of vows, the “scene stealer” clapped and cried. His happy tears summarized the whole point of the occasion. The whole wedding was an album of love. *

(For your new beginnings, e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com.

I’m also on Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)