Ilo Echevarria Wallenstein
Dear Cousins and Your Families, I am grateful for the opportunity I had to visit with her one last time in June of 2018. Although it seemed like a one-way conversation, in my heart I know there was love and a connection that gave us both a closure and a promise to be together again. Nanay, Lolo Canor, Lola Icion, (I can’t remember all their names now) Uncle Nats, Tito Boy, Tita Lita, Tito Pros, Tito Rolly, Victor, the many members of the Sto. Nino Novena Group, her co-workers at the Bank of America, even GSIS, balaes like the Ebarles, the Castillos, Mr. Lopez, my Dad, Uncle Marcial and Auntie Tinay, Uncle Ramiro and Auntie Puring, Uncle Ito and Auntie Nelly, Uncle Coring and Auntie Itang, Auntie Paring, Lola Cianang and Lolo Tero must have all met her at the Pearly Gates. I am sure, by now, she has signed up for the choir at the Throne Room and at the Coffee Break Room, she is part of the Glee Club. What an awesome meeting with the Sto. Nino! Auntie Chabeng, thank you for the welcome mat at 2470 Hibiscus Dr. I shall ask for your recipes from Marissa for the crispy shrimp and the special ground meat omelet, and your secret of making a pot of your home recipe guisado ahead of time to use as needed when cooking time is a crunch. I have already learned from Irma (who learned by working it out with you) how to prepare for a complete meal to serve as a pot luck as she demonstrated the last time Ginger and I were at West Triangle in 2016. I have observed the boys you grew and bless you for raising them up as good, responsible, committed, and maka-pamilya men of their families. I give you the credit for how the women you have nurtured, Irma and Marissa, have demonstrated their attitude to serve (without counting the cost) their families and its needs and priorities. I thank you for loving Uncle Nats through more than 50 years…you were the love of his life and you channeled that to raise the family that became the I.R.M.A + R family. In my heart, there will always be a June wedding to remember, an October birthday hard to forget, and anecdotes we should continue to share to tighten the weave of the family that is your legacy….I tried to copy your offer of a baon of hard boiled egg and ham sandwich for any long trip…but the takers are getting fewer…preferring the more practical (though expensive) alternative to make it to the next rest stop. But among those to whom I have offered it, they all say, ina-Auntie Chabeng mo ko, ha, Ilo!