Maria Girlie Pascual: God-Given Life 2.0

in G-Mail, Maria Girlie Pascual February 23, 2024

By: Maria Girlie Pascual

All I could think about was how shiny and clean the ceiling of the surgery room was at the Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. The orderlies wheeled me in at 2:20 pm on October 12 last year after the attending nurse prepped me for a liver hepatectomy to be performed by renowned surgeon Dr Malcolm Bilimoria of the Illinois Center for Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary Diseases. Sounds like a mouthful, but for anyone who saw my MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) prior to this day, they would think I had three baseballs stuck in my liver. But without going into too much medical detail, I remembered talking to one of the surgical nurses for a mere five minutes before I blacked out and awoke with all kinds of tubes and medical monitors attached to me in the recovery room. The operation took two and a half hours and was thankfully, successful.

Rewinding to two months prior to my surprise operation (it was by divine providence that these three big cysts were discovered by accident), I would say that being a golfer, a real restate broker, Grandma to a rambunctious five year old kept me moving and burning unwanted calories. Because of my active physical life, I thought that my general well being was good for my age. I always went for a yearly check-up, kept my diet fairly green and if I did imbibe on my poison of choice, it was usually on the weekends, maybe a glass or two with friends. My world was completely turned upside down when I found out that I needed major surgery, not laser or laparoscopic, but a good old fashioned “cut me open with a scalpel for a nine inch opening” kind of operation that warranted a full physical and comprehensive bloodwork prior to the procedure, and two hours before the actual surgery. It also mandated the presence of a blood transfusion team on standby “just in case”, as my surgeon declared. The two weeks prior to that, I was suddenly thinking of the worst case scenario, as all surgical patients do, my nurse friend declared. Prayers, offerings, penitence, yes, I did all of that, and estate planning, that was all done years ago. In short, it was my thoughts that truly got me waking up at night and wondering if there were any regrets, unfinished tasks, words that needed to be spoken before I went under the knife. After all my sleepless nights, my biggest worry came to be my five year old grandson Kenzo, who I will regret not seeing to become more than this lively, happy toddler, should something unforseen happen during surgery, and my angst that my one and only son Kristoffer, will not have someone to help raise this little boy. So yes, I did speak to him about NOT closing his heart to a future love, I was vocal to my brothers Brent and Bently to make sure they are living a life they love and to take care of their families, and I also had dialogues with special people in my life whose reply was ” Stop thinking that way and believe that you’ll be fine!” Funny how I became adamant about speaking my mind to the people that mattered before the surgery, and it was one of the things that helped quiet my mind that day. Now moving forward, I promised myself that I will not take anything meaningful for granted, that I will be thankful and mindful of all my blessings big and small, but that I will also speak up and be truthful about things I need to defend, protect, uphold as I continue to help Kristoffer raise his son Kenzo.

This is exactly why I finally agreed to be on the cover of Viatimes, the year I turned 65, the year I was granted a new lease on life by our Father in Heaven. Thank you to Veronica who offered time and time again to put me on the cover when I started hitting milestones in my journey through life, love and everything in between, with her being one of my mentors and close friends. As Viatimes is, and will always be a part of my history, I take this time to also voice my appreciation through this column, to our faithful readers and subscribers, some of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting, working with, even becoming friends with, over the years. As a real estate broker of 36 years and counting, I also express gratitude for Viatimes and how it has helped me and my business when I became a columnist for this publication in 1987, after the birth of the internet circa 1983. It was then that I came up with the title of my column “G-MAIL by MARIA GIRLIE PASCUAL” long before Google launched its “Gmail” internet correspondence service in 2004, a whopping 17 years prior to that. I also became the Chicago Philippine Reports TV anchor around the same time period, and in those years, the trajectory of my existence included this newspaper and its publisher, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now that I have Kenzo Wildoer on the cover with me, I can only hope and pray that I will be the one to tell him why I chose this particular year to be its cover girl, and how this year will be, for me, a year to be a continuation of caring for the best gift any Grandma can wish for–time to spend with a legacy and blessing that only HE can grant with his all knowing power and wisdom. To God be the glory!

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