This grieving heart takes comfort leafing through the pages of the mind, snatching bits and pieces once enjoyed with the lost beloved. All medical interventions were to no avail in the hubby's case. Science shakes its head when the time has come for the individual to enter the "undiscovered country" that Hamlet loves to soliloquize.

This bereaved soul finds solace in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry that soars to metaphorical heights: "Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul." And we the living who still have the gift of life in us get inspired in what the poem further say: "Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal."

Having lived really and earnestly well — getting the four children established in their careers — what else was there to do? Enjoy the sunset years! Golden years sound better — so rich in memories that leave me alone to sweet reminiscence, and to share.

Do you hear the people sing? Rudy and I had loved the song even before watching Les Miserables in Broadway, long before gifted Lea Salonga was chosen to sing Eponine in the musical's 10th anniversary in London. On the way out of Les Miserables, I told Rudy to wait as I had spotted a kababayan in the crowd, aquaculturist-entrepreneur Dawn Jamandre. Small world! New York's Broadway is dubbed the longest street simply because it is the site of theaters showing the top musicals of the world.

Do you hear the people sing? echoes the cry of the French revolutionaries: Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite! Embodies, too, the cry of the huge masses of our people. Catch the song in YouTube, and you may find yourself empathizing and asking questions with the "miserables" of the world, thus:

Do you hear the people sing?/Singing a song of angry men?/It is the music of a people/Who will not be slaves again!/When the beating of your heart/Echoes the beating of the drums/There is a life about to start/When tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade?/Who will be strong and stand with me?/Beyond the barricade/Is there a world you long to see?/Then join in the fight/That will give you the right to be free!

Will you give all you can give/So that our banner may advance/Some will fall and some will live/Will you stand up and take your chance?/The blood of the martyrs/Will water the meadows of France!

The beat and the repetition of the stanzas in the entirety of the song embolden and inspire the activist heart. No wonder that Rudy and I just love the song. We watched the Cameron Macintosh musical in 1994. Then toddler James Raphael, now 18, would march as we replayed the song on tape. There was one other teeny-weeny bit of song our grandson would sing plus the action: I have two hands/the left and the right, etc.

Very elementary, ain't it? I have two hands was sung to a bus-load of tourists in rapt attention that broke up to guffaws. The singer: yours truly. In 1995, Rudy and I joined Insight International's 11-country tour of Europe. A contingent of 30 was composed of 5 Filipinos, 24 Australians, and 1 New Zealander. The tour guide gave us a rule for everyone to observe: If you're late in entering the bus at the specified time, you must regale the group with a song. The one time I was late, I had to render, what to the hubby, the sweetest song I had mastered in Grade I with action too of my left and right hand. Ha-ha.

Rudy and I flew to London for the start of the tour. We were in the company of a mother-daughter team, Mila and Marilyn. I forgot the name of the other kababayan, young and the free-spirit type. The bus was composed of two long rows divided by a middle passageway. Each row would seat two people. Of the thirty tourists, who would be the first two to get inside the bus but Mila and Marilyn who seated themselves in the very front row behind the bus driver. On the opposite row, Mila and Marilyn placed their handbags to reserve the row for us. See the loyalty of a kababayan. But our hopes of a front-row panoramic vision was cut short. The tour guide announced that every so often, the passengers would be rotated to give everyone equal chance to enjoy the front view. Gosh, the Pinoy's cleverness and ingenuity gone to naught. More memories next week.*( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )