Lesson from a Frustrated Grandpa

By Herbert Vego

I AM A frustrated grandfather at age 75. My only son, now 51, has remained single while eking out a living as a nurse in New York City.

But I no longer think of it negatively because it has done my son good.

He has made up his mind to stay single, not wanting to be like her mom and I who had lived hard, foregoing leisure and pleasure, to see him through school.

I was a young college student when I first heard the song where a father tells his son: “If you want, you can marry. Look at me, I am old but am happy.”

Since I wanted to be happy in 1972 at age 22, I almost emptied my meager bank account to marry my fiancée. I was cocky, confident that I had the means to ride through the rough roads ahead.

Little did I know that I would not be as happy as I had fantasized. Any married couple knows that jumping to the double bed without substantial savings is like going to war without arms.

A series of expensive events buried me deep in debt within the first three years of my married life: frequent hospitalizations of my wife due to epilepsy, a miscarriage of what could have been our first baby, the successful birth of our only son and her ectopic pregnancy that necessitated surgery.

After only nine years, we broke up.

On the bright side, having sired only one son, I managed to see him through college.

But if I were to live my bachelorhood again, I would no longer marry while still financially unstable.

Thus, when the long-pending Reproductive Health Bill was still being debated in Congress, I wrote a number of supportive columns. I cited tales why early marriage is not the same as wedded bliss.

One such case is that of a once beautiful cousin. The last time I saw her, I thought she was someone else because her sparkling eyes had dulled, her pinky and chubby cheeks had paled and sunk. Her body curves had shrunk like a “thin stick.”

“How are you?” I asked while shifting my gaze at a thin boy tugging at her skirt.

“I am generously blessed,” she quipped in a gravelly voice that betrayed a cover-up. “God gave me six children.”

“Why so many?” I insisted, knowing that her husband had no regular job.

“So that when my man and I grow old, they will be there to take good care of us.”

Not wanting to hurt her, I checked my tongue. I could have disagreed. If a couple could not enjoy a healthy and comfortable middle age, chances are they would be too sick to enjoy old age. Worse, their children would not even be around, since they would have also married with another generation of kids to worry over.

Indeed, parents work to death to support the future of their children. But when the children marry early and also exhaust themselves at work, they repeat the cycle, and so their “bright future” never comes.

I wrote this, by the way, to impart a lesson to single men aching to be a father: Make hay first – while the sun shines.

-oOo-

TREÑAS HAPPY OVER MORE POWER PERFORMANCE

ILOILO City Mayor Jerry Treñas is confident that MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power), the city’s distribution utility (DU), is keeping track of the Ilonggo’s’ growing energy needs, and therefore is capable of addressing them.

As revealed by MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro, the company has kept in step with the rising energy demand since it took over from the previous DU five years ago with a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 13 percent.

“Just to make it very simple, when we came in, there were about 62,000 customers. Now we’re already over 100,000,” Castro said in a presentation.

To support more demand, MORE Power has completed the rehabilitation of its 25/30 megavolt-amperes (MVA) Molo substation and is planning to build a new substation in Arevalo district.

The company has also established substations in Megaworld and Diversion, with further plans to rehabilitate the Mandurriao substation.

With Iloilo City’s power demand now exceeding 120 megawatts, MORE Power has secured enough contracts to ensure a stable supply, particularly during the dry season.