FROM MOTHER TO WIFE---A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO A FRIEND

by: Norberto Betita

She was known to every youth her age as Jingao. She has exceptional talents in dancing, singing, and playing the piano. She is a dance coach. Her brilliance is evident but she remained to be just the humble and simple young woman, standing taller than her height. She declaims and is a good public speaker. She is an upstanding and virtuous youth and a very active youth leader. Her youthful beauty is adorned by that sweetest smile which seemed to remain aglow as a permanent tag of her womanhood. She is a professional teacher. Yet I remembered her best as that diligent and ever determined Seminary and Institute student. She served a full-time mission for a year and a half and she testified that it was one of the most memorable years of her life. Never in my mind as her Branch President that she would chose to be a full-time mother and wife. She is Janely Patiño Rosali Yumul.

But to her motherhood is not a second choice, it is the best and paramount choice. She knew that it is the purest and most realistic responsibility that she is honored to undertake. And to do such was a heavenly privilege. All the messes and multi-tasks that are attendant to her divine duty in nurturing and fostering five children are but flowers that add beauty to the home. As in the words of Victor Hugo, she knew that her “arms are made of tenderness” where her “children sleep soundly in them.” During the infancy and early childhood of her five heavenly trusts, never did she desire a time for her own. All her best times are focused to the care of those tender souls.

Then at dusk and into the nightfall when all the jumbles and muddles are cleared, she shifted her role from mother to wife attending to a tired worker and provider---her husband. She sees to it that he is cheered after a weary work. She makes sure that fondness and affectionate devotion abound in their marital relationship. Then again she gathers the five children “as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings (3 Nephi 10:5)” to sit together for a moment of scripture study and family prayer. Such daily routine built a foundation that strengthens and protects the family from the wiles of the world. They together marched with hopeful assurance of the fulfillment of the sealing promise that they will live together forever as a family.

There is no greater joy for her than to see each of the children grow from infancy to the vulnerability of teenage walking in virtue and righteousness influenced and guided by collective parental hands. Now they shared getting the messes out of their way, yet the responsibility increases as more school assignments and PTA meetings have to be attended to; making sure that the kids find a common interest in education; and teaching each to avoid evil deceptions along their youthful path. The girls are now grown to young womanhood as to be able to handle home chores. She needs no longer to ask for a time of her own. They gave her the freedom to find time for a restful vacation out of the confines of the home. Yet even while in some relaxing moments and peaceful retreat away from everyday humdrums her thoughts reverts to her beloved husband and children. In one moment of void anticipation she might have imagined one of her daughter say: “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power, or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” (Maya Angelou).

Eventually maturity follows adolescence; then the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes might ring: “Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall…” the anxiety of one day being left alone with her husband looms; yet, “…a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” Finally, she will miss all those wonderful motherhood experiences and what remains will be her everlasting responsibility as a wife to a beloved husband. Perhaps as she looks forward to the day when her children will be marching out of the home to build their own, she would still be able to unveil the youthful tag of her beauty---that sweetest smile---as she waves goodbye with absolute assurance that she will never be alone for she is a wife eternally bound to a dearest husband in a covenant sealed by the Holy Priesthood between the mirrors of eternity.

However, before her growing children will ultimately leave home to build their own, her most loving husband and parental partner, Gaygay Yumul, whose unbounded love and devotion for her and their children extends into eternity, wanted to leave a lasting legacy in their family life, greatest of which are happy family memories. He afforded the family a trip to the USA to attend the April 2015 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and visit relatives and friends in different states. He knew that when all other things change, wonderful family memories will forever remain.

Perhaps no greater gift is given that could ever replace the joy and happiness of having a loving, faithful and devoted husband and submissive children working together to form the building blocks of a sacred sanctuary called home. No greater endowment could substitute the sealing promise of the family being together forever in the eternal realms of God.