My Refrigerator Door

In the past, feeling blue before my birthday was a convenient excuse I made up so I can eat and drink as much as I want to. This year, my blues were real, age has been catching up on me and I had health issues to deal with. In a span of three weeks, two of my friends lost their mothers, and my master tailor of eighteen years, Mang Roger died four days after having a heat stroke. I was playing Ronan Keating's version of Won't Last A Day Without You on repeat mode for days, a feel good song that would hopefully lull me out of my melancholia. I didn't plan a big celebration, all I wanted was to hear Mass with my family and eat pizza, my birthday falling on a Sunday. Saturday before my birthday, a dozen of my closest trooped to Poppins, my weekend hangout, to cheer me at the stroke of midnight. Monday was dinner at the artsy new place Karnita's Corner with my dear friend Kasia Rei from Los Angeles who's celebrating his birthday two days after me. A joint celebrati

I started blogging five years ago after reading the book  Life On The Refrigerator Door  by  Alice Kuipers.  So touched was I from the story, I named my blog  My Refrigerator Door . Ms. Kuipers wonderfully weaved a story about a daughter and her mother who battled with breast cancer in a series of notes posted on the refrigerator door. Last Sunday, at the funeral of Tita Passy,  Paz Cojuangco-Teopaco,  I was reminded of that beautiful book. She too fought a long battle with the disease, but in her suffering, she has brought her family back together. I met the Teopacos through my good friend  Kris Aquino . In one of Kris's anniversary specials on TV, I was introduced by Kris' mother,  President Cory  to her youngest sister, Passy. After that, I got to bond with Kris's cousins, Tita Passy's daughters,  Marla  and  Rina  in a summer trip to Mindoro. Sharing the same love for sentimental music, and deep affection for Kris's son  Joshua , Rina and I became the b