"Puede ko ba pakasalan ang apo ninyo?" by Neal Emery

Lola,

I will pass on as much knowledge as you gave me to Savannah as best I can... which will take me a while but she's willing to wait :)

My memories of her cannot be described in one passage but I can start with this memory of her.

March of 2008...

I sit in my room and practice my Tagalog... "puede ko ba", "puede ko ba paka salan","puede ko ba paka salan ang apo ninyo"... I am sweating trying to learn this phrase so that I can first ask Cherrie's parents that I can marry their daughter and then ask LOLA! I call up Tita Dolly and Tito Egay and say I was wondering what you are doing for dinner and I was hoping I could stop by for a little bit to "chat". I was continually repeating the phrase so that I don't mess it up. We sit and eat dinner and I asked them if it would be okay if I could join their wonderful family. Cherrie's dad who I was trying to impress said "I don't say much but I like you Neal so yea go for it" and Cherrie's mom said " That is a great idea, you will be a perfect match". After that I said there is one more person I would like to ask before I ask Cherrie. I said that I had been practicing my Tagalog and would like to ask Lola in Tagalog. Immediately Cherrie's mom said she wanted to hear it but I refrained and said I wanted to save it for Lola. So we all walk over to her house and there she was sitting on her usual chair near the kitchen looking past me saying "Where is Cherrie?" I said that I'm the only one here and that I have a question for her. She looked at me a bit confused but I took her hand so she could bless me and said Lola... "puede ko ba paka salan ang apo ninyo"... I was hoping to get a great reaction but she didn't hear me. I sat there as she looked around the room like what did he just say... So I spoke up for her again and said "puede ko ba paka salan ang apo ninyo" this time I'm sure she heard because she grabbed my shoulder and screamed with all of us in pure joy! Then being Lola and the teacher she always was said... "you need to put more emphasis on the UE in P-UE-DE!... I said okay Lola next time.

It was so fun to see her so happy and I will always remember her excitement for the simple things in life.

-Neal-