Howdy

[senior citizen]

A friend of ours turned me on to this site. I am 65 and my Filipina is 40. We were married way back when marrying a Filipina and bringing her home was as easy as adopting a stray kitten. I was 40 and she was 16 (although she told me she was 22 and her parents falsified the papers). I was retired from the Marines and took some vacation in the Philippines and wound up staying over a year. I had no close family and I had never married so I had nothing to bring me back to the US very fast.

I been checking out this website and I had applied for a password, but I gave up after two weeks with no answer. The site said two days and it was about two weeks. Admin must have been on vacation.

After living 25 years (almost) with a Filipina I am happy I made the choice, even if she was underage at the time. You have to know that the paperwork situation in the Philippines was a lot more lax a quarter century ago so it was easy for her parents to fix things, especially since we had a civil not a church wedding. Besides, back then 16 year old girls, and a lot younger, were working as prostitutes. The government there was pretty lax then. My Honey sure passed for 22 and she acted it. She stepped right into marriage like she was born and bred for it. I guess her folks (may they rest in peace) were anxious to get her married off to a Kano. I have no regrets. Anyway, we haven't been back to the Philippines for I bet 18 years now. After her folks died there wasn't much need to go back as her siblings were all a lot older than she was and they never were close.

My Honey wasn't anything naughty, she was working in her folks' laundry when I met her. We sort of fell in together from the get-go, as if we were made for each other and just waiting to have our chance meeting like in the novels. In 6 months we were married and a month after that we came to the US. She didn't tell me how old she was until she was pregnant for our first child. I was sure shocked but it was too late to mend things by then.

Well, I've run my yap long enough for one night. I am up with one of the grandkids who has a cold, but they are back asleep now so I am heading back to Honey where it is warm and she's soft. It was my turn to get up tonight. So long, folks.

[Jeff S]

... in response to Howdy, posted by senior citizen on Mar 12, 2004

Funny how you could have gone to jail, had you married your wife here in the states. It's good to hear another success story.

- Jeff

[Jimbo]

... in response to Howdy, posted by senior citizen on Mar 12, 2004

Well, I don't know your name so I'm just taking a guess :-)

Welcome to the board!

18 years - I'd go crazy if I waited that long to go back...

Jim

[senior citizen]

... in response to Welcome Ralph!, posted by Jimbo on Mar 12, 2004

Well, after her parents and their whole neighborhood, just about, were wiped out in 1984 we only went back a couple of times. In 1984 the islands were hit by two super typhoons. One in August and one in November. The August one weakened everything and the November one caused massive landslides or mudslides I guess you'd call them. Took her home, the family business, her parents, most of her old neighborhood, her childhood friends, everything. Between the two typhons something like 2500 people died. More if you count the mudslides afterwards. Probably doubled that figure.

We went back for the funerals and everything, and a couple of times afterwards, but it never worked out. The family didn't like me for taking her so young, although I didn't know I had and her parents abetted the deception, and somehow blamed her and me for their parent's death as if we could stop a landslide. Plus they were all older (Honey was a change of life baby), so Honey really didn't want to go back. She said there was no reason to go back as her world was wiped away by the typhoon and mudslide.

But that is old bad news. We raised two kids, a son and then a daughter, and they are both grown and happy with their own families. Now we have grandchildren and it makes Honey happy all over again. A happy Filipina is good to have around. They are both devout Catholics like their mother (I am the heathen in the family and rather lackadaisical about church matters). Honey has been an American citizen for many years, although she tends to vote democrat which I think she does just to get my goat.

[Jimbo]

... in response to Re: Welcome Ralph!, posted by senior citizen on Mar 12, 2004

I think those '84 typhoons are the ones that wiped out the beach and damaged much of the reef at Moalboal, Cebu.  My wife grew up on Camiguin and her uncle would tell her about the volcano erupting in 1951:

"From 1948 to 1951, Mt. Hibok-Hibok constantly rumbled and smoked. Its minor eruption in 1948 caused little damage and loss of life. In 1949, its eruption caused 79 deaths due to landslides. In the morning of December 4, 1951, the volcano erupted again. This, time, however, it unleashed boiling lava, poisonous gases, and landslides enough to destroy nearly 19 squares kilometers of land particularly in Mambajao. All in all, over 3,000 people were killed.

Before the eruption of Mt. Hibok-Hibok in 1951, the population of Camiguin had reach 69,000. After the eruption, the population was reduced to about 34,000 due to massive out-migration"

My wife would not want to live in Camiguin now, not because of the volcano but because of relatives who will pester her for money.  But she's open to other places in the Visayas or even Manila.  She likes Manila.  I do too.

Jim

[Ray]

... in response to Howdy, posted by senior citizen on Mar 12, 2004

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