[Though my sister WANDRA (shown in this photo being hugged by her handsome hubby DAVE via a seeming “wrestling arm lock”) will be celebrating her birthday still on August 19, I have told her that I will publish this HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG early with an accompanying request that she prays hard and most fervently in support of my daughters’ quest to BAG the GOLD at today’s 2017 World Hiphop International FINALS. WANDRA wanted to be a magician during her nonage, I know that with her flair for MAGIC, she can make perhaps both LEGIT STATUS and ALLIANCE to WIN the GOLD…via a TIE for the CHAMPION AWARD perhaps…]
I remembered there was a LOUD BOOM1,
On the hour and date that you were BORN;
It was some kind of a GUN SALUTE,
To a personality– who surely was ASTUTE2!
Thus your birthday is always a HOLIDAY NATIONAL,
He’s MANUEL LUIS QUEZON of TAYABAS 4,
He curses and spews vile epithets, so FAST!
And when LOLA BIYAY5 came out of the ROOM,
She was gleaming a smile as wide as a BROOM;
For it was another CUTE BABY GIRL,
LOLA BIYAY knows Daddy Max wanted ANOTHER6!
Indeed it was a succession of FEMALE DUO,
First it was the WONDER WOMAN WILMA, then it was YOU;
Perhaps Daddy Max wanted another WONDER,
Thus, you were named WANDRA, Daddy Max did not much PONDER!
And the WONDROUS thing that you ever DID,
Was to place a hand-rolled tissue into your NIB7;
Thinking perhaps that you were a MAGICIAN,
You seemed wanting to show off a rope in quick SECOND8!
Thus, after the LONG ROPE did not APPEAR,
And the rolled tissue can’t be EXTRICATED…it brought much FEAR;
You were brought to a PHYSICIAN—not a MAGICIAN,
The long rolled-tissue did not need an operation ala CAESARIAN9!
Though not much wonders came your WAY,
You’ve scored LUCK with a SCOT10 with eyes so BLUISH-GRAY;
Who has sired a HANDSOME SON and a PRETTY LADY,
The dame is DANA and the son is named DAVID WYLIE!
And as the cutest among our SIBLINGS,
You’ve been deemed as transporter of lots of SHILLINGS11…
For every time you come to MANILA12,
You’ll surely lose again in MAHJONG to our PAPA13!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WANDRA!!!!
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[Legend: 1 – The BOOM of a cannon was heard and was audible then at a not-too populated MURPHY of yestertears, by reason of a GUN SALUTE drummed up at the then Camp Murphy, now Camp Aguinaldo.
2 – As is usual, only TWO (2) political personalities are accorded the GUN SALUTE; namely: the President and Vice-President of the Republic of the Philippines. At that time in 1962, the President was Diosdado Macapagal while the Vice-President was Emmanuel Pelaez; undoubtedly both are REMARKABLE and ASTUTE persons.
3 – PREXY is another term for President.
3a – President Manuel Luis Quezon was indeed a PHENOMENAL politician. During the COMMONWEALTH regime, the political aspiration was for the independence of the Philippines. The tandem of Sergio Osmeña and Manuel Roxas (called then as the OSROX Mission) went to the US and was able to snag a law the HARE-HAWES-CUTTING Act which granted independence upon the Philippines with somewhat onerous conditions. Thus, it was rejected by the Philippine Senate. Not to be outdone, Pres. Manuel Luis Quezon, singlehandedly lobbied at the US Congress and was able to procure a better law, the TYDINGS-MCDUFFIE Law which eventually was ratified by the Philippine Senate. The legislative act was authored in the 73rd United States Congress by Senator Millard E. Tydings (Dem.) of Maryland and Representative John McDuffie (Dem.) of Alabama, and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
5 – LOLA BIYAY aka Maria De Jesus, was the famed community comadrona in Murphy then, and she would be the usual midwife who would assist in almost all the births during that time in the Murphy community.
6 – Daddy Max was indeed so desirous to have daughters as children. That was the very reason that we eventually reached EIGHT (8) , actually NINE (9) except that the youngest daughter WENDY, fell ill and died in infancy.
7 – NIB is another term for the NOSE or NOSTRILS.
8 – This is in reference to a magical trick where a string of paper is magically turned into a roll of a rope.
9 – A caesarian procedure refers to a surgical operation of opening up the abdomen of the female species and into the ovary to deliver a baby. But Wandra luckily did not need an operation to extricate the long rolled-tissue paper.
10 – The term SCOT refers to my debonair and handsome BROTHER-IN-LAW, the equally suave DAVID HERON who works as a topnotch stockbroker in Hongkong.
12 – From time to time, WANDRA would shuttle to the Philippines from Hongkong especially when there would be major family affairs and gatherings and the usual routine is a MAHJONG SESSION with Daddy Max and my other siblings.
13 – The term PAPA is a reference to Daddy Max and used here to achieve RHYME; and it would seem that Daddy Max’s winning streak in MAHJONG has not been broken.]
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Published by walteryounglawfirm
I am a litigation lawyer in the Philippines and a graduate of the UP College of Law. I also hold an AB Economics degree from the University of the Philippines. While taking up Law at UP Diliman, I was working at the Tondo Foreshore Development Project which eventually became part of the National Housing Authority (NHA), where I started out as a Research Officer and eventually rose as Estate Manager. When the EDSA REVOLUTION happened, I resigned from the NHA in May 1986 and got employed as Legal Officer with Allied Banking Corporation's Legal and Collection Department, which got merged with the Philippine National Bank. In 1998, together with my UP Law classmate, the late Jaime G. Nagrampa, we put up a private law firm which originally was named NAGRAMPA & YOUNG Law Office and now, as THE YOUNG LAW FIRM.
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