by Telly G. Ocampo
A Wedding Ceremony
A wedding is a time of joy. Saturday, March 25, 2023 was the wedding of Jonathan Realista and Sansan Wang-Realista. Both are nurses abroad and have served as nurses at the Borja hospital before their stint abroad. They have left for New Zealand for a greener pasture. After their civil marriage, a few years back, they bore a child in the land they now call home, but they chose to come back for their Catholic wedding, on March 25 this year, in the church of their homeland – at Baclayon, Bohol.
Jonathan or Jessie Boy, the groom, used to be one of our Nazareno boys. We have the carro bearing our Senior Jesus Nazareno complete with the Hudiyo ug Simon. The people who take care of the carro are called the Nazareno boys and the groom, Jessie, used to be one of them. The other Nazareno boys are Natnat, JD and Nito. Natnat and JD are all children of Daria and Nito, We also have Popette and Henry Boy – the children of Lina and Henry Limboy. Another Nazareno boy is my own apo, Davin Blu who is the youngest of the batch.
I remember so well that one time when the group called the Nazareno boys extended the time of tagay session until they dropped down as they had more than enough. That was the time when Jessie Boy announced his temporary leaving of the group since he was already going to New Zealand. I still could recall that the tagay session happened on Easter Sunday. It was not only to say good bye to Jessie Boy but also to all the other boys who were leaving that year for work across the seas. At that time, my apo, Davin Blu, having been the youngest, had to stay put as he was still in high school.
Last Saturday, March 25, 2023, all the Nazareno boys had a reunion of sorts for Jessie and Sansan’s wedding. All the Caballo siblings were all home for the Jessie – Sansan wedding. They came with their respective children: Mar and Ann from Davao with the family of their two boys coming in together with their children including Niko from Australia; Lina and Henry’s children coming home from Canada, the United Kingdom and Cebu.
They were and are all excited to be together – even for a very short period of time. And in addition to the get together are younger batches of nieces and nephews who continued the work of todtod sa carro. It is very timely that the wedding was scheduled a week before the Semana Santa for the Nazareno boys to reunite.
Event coordinators are, indeed, angels during important occasions. The Jessie-Sansan wedding was ably coordinated by a dear friend, Gloria Leodivica Ines Araneta. Aside from being an event coordinator, she is also an educator from the University of Bohol, broadcaster of dyTR and editor of The Bohol Tribune. I remember with pride and gratefulness, too, that Gloria was the church commentator on the weddings of my two girls, Estela and Irene. How so proper they looked and behaved during those occasions. After the wedding ceremony held last week for Sansan and Jessie Boy, Gloria whispered to me a kind sentence. She made a suggestion for our church commentators to be properly dressed up for the occasion. Suggestion lang ha? Suggestion nga kinahanglan gyud nga paminawon.
Back to the wedding, I’m thinking that it would have been perfect if there was a Desidida De Soltera. This used to be a tradition in my mother’s time to give the opportunity for the groom and the bride’s families to know each other including the members of the bridal entourage. This is also a chance for the entourage to have an orderly procession as a form of rehearsal for the wedding march. I miss Nong Tekyo. This was his role to prepare everything for the wedding ceremony when the event coordinators were still unknown in that particular era.
Congratulations, Gloria and the staff of “SMILE”, Philippines for a very smooth, orderly, well arranged and beautiful wedding celebration!!!