Inspiration
Pelagia Soliven is simply awesome.
I may not know her at all, but reading her words on paper was enough for me to imagine what she went through, what she felt with every hardship and heartache--her strength just simply reached out to me, and, I suppose to any reader.
The story she wrote only caught my attention because Mara was scanning pictures from it. At first i thought it was some sort of tribute that Max Soliven wrote for her, but as I went through the chapters, I realized that she was the one speaking, and that it was her story, from her point of view, that I was reading/listening to. I use the word "listening" because she wrote so beautifully, so honestly and yet so competently--it was like I was actually in front of her, watching her and listening to a tale told personlally by a woman who has fought to survive, and emerged victorious.
I was so absorbed in the story that the title of the book eluded me. :p (Pelagia Villaflor Soliven: A Woman So Valiant --- checked as of Jan. 25, 2005)
ANYWAY. XD
The chapter that caught my full attention was the one wherein she narrated her experiences while her husband was imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp. It was a kind of love story you would think youcould only see in the movies. That's what struck, me I guess... That a love like theirs could really exist and endure... That a woman like her could actually have that much faith and hope in a situation so bleak and without promise. Page after page, I read how worried she was for Benito, every single day, for his health. I read how dedicated she was to sending him any supplies he might need, from medicine to canned food, to wool pants. She attempted to visit him several times, and finally succeeded in meeting him about twice, one with her son, and the other alone. the letters they wrote to each other were nothing short of heart-warming and sweet, and with each letter, I could only imagine the pain they felt by being apart.
Every time something happened to Benito, like when he got sick with malaria, I felt an urge to skip the pages and find out if he was able to make it back home to his family, yet, like a movie so well-written, I just couldn't take my eyes of the pages. I ended up reading it through and through, slowly moving in the suspense of not knowing the ending, suspecting the worst, and, finally, finding the conclusion. (Yes, they did meet again. ^_^)
Through it all Pelagia, endearingly called "Peng" by her husband, bore it all. She never neglected her children, and was constantly professing her love for them in her writing. She sold what she could to make money, and eventually turned to the one thing she could do best--sew--to make a living for her and her children. She prayed zealously and taught her children to believe in a Divine Provider who she believed had been helping them all those years. Such faith. You can't find that here nowadays.
When her husband died, her grief echoed to the next pages, almost to the end of the book. Despite that, however, her determination to move on and ensure a good life for her kids took over, and she was able to help them all succeed, all, unknown to her, inspired by her greatness and dedication. Now that's a legacy.
The story took me completely off-guard. I'm glad I read it, though. ^_^
posted by Mich @ 1:59 PM
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