I was at a necrological mass at the Fatima Church in Ormoc City yesterday. It was a mass for my friend's friend. I was there to sympathize with my friend, Lucie, who lost a good friend, whom she fondly calls Nang Nita.
Nang Nita was a teacher like Lucie and me. She graduated at the Philippine Normal College in Manila, which is also my Alma Mater. She was a very good mother to her five children (3 boys and 2 girls). She was a very religious woman. She served the church through the Parish Pastoral Council, the Mother Butler, the Legion of Mary, etc, not to mention her daily church visits for the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament.
She was well-loved by the parishioners and the people in her community. The huge attendance to her wake and internment can attest to that. Friends and relatives from different places were there to show their love for Nang Nita and to pay their last respects.
For all her good and lovable ways, God blessed her with a final goodbye, which would be a hard act to follow-even by the richest faithful. Nang Nita so generously shared with God 2 of her 3 sons. She not only allowed, but encouraged and inspired her 2 sons. Rev. Fr. Gani Petilos and Rev. Fr. Ivan Petilos to become priests. The Archbishop of Palo, Monsignor Jose S. Palma, celebrated the requiem mass, with 128 priests as co-celebrants. That was the first time that I ever saw so many priests, and with the bishop at that, saying mass altogether, for one departed person.
