Why do the bride’s parents cry during the wedding?
Today, the twenty-fifth of October, I'm going to march down the aisle in the beautiful Saint James church inside the Ayala Alabang Village, here in Muntinglupa, in order to give away my daughter, Joyce Mae to the love of her life, Terence Randolf Senorin. It will be the last moments of holding our daughter's arms as an unmarried first daughter. In a few minutes, she will become a wife. And by just even thinking about it now and writing this, I'm already misty. I cannot imagine that this is the frail little baby that my wife brought into this world many summers ago.
My wife and I are very close to our five children. We have always been with them, sending them off every day to school from prep to kinder to elementary, high school, and college. We always accompanied them and attended all the important events in their school life. This daughter, Joyce, our first girl, was closely guarded by my wife who had to stop working as a nurse just to focus on being a mom. I credit her for bringing up very fine children, well-bred, socially-adjusted, with strong I.Q. and even stronger E.Q. And so, at these very moments, I can imagine that she will be crying more and me.
Joyce studied in Golden Values under Father Bob and Emmy Garon. She went to Assumption in San Lorenzo, Makati, all through the kinder, elementary, and high school. We attended all the parents teachers' conferences, supported all her school activities and were always around in all programs and affairs. She finished two courses in La Salle with honors and received two diplomas in one graduation. We still have all the pictures and looking back at those years can really bring us to tears. How time flies fast, and I cannot imagine that today, she is a bride resplendent in her beautiful gown.
Joyce worked in a real estate firm for awhile then joined China Bank. In no time, Citibank offered her a job, then she was pirated by Hong Kong And Shanghai Bank. Today she is a manager in BPI managing wealth management for big individual accounts and supervising branches in Luzon. My wife and I looked at her with awe and admiration. We were amazed at the rate of her career and personality growth. She is a model to her siblings and the pride of everyone in the family. Today, she is going to be a wife and will not be staying with us anymore. They have their own place, their own cars. This kind of independence from us is the one that makes us cry.
Or perhaps, it is the thought of not seeing her anymore every morning and evening that gives us some tinge of sadness. We are going to shed tears not really for her because we are sure that her husband will take good care of our baby, but because of ourselves. We see in her a pillar of strength and stability, the one who brings the family together. She is not perfect, oh, she has her attitudes and her tantrums, but it is always Joyce who initiates the reconciliation, the solutions to frictions and irritations. Yes, we are going to miss our daughter. This is the moment that I fear the most when I shall turn over to Terence Randolf the hands of our beloved. May the Lord bless her and Terence all the days of their life together.
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