I'd Rather Have One Blossom Now, Than A Truckload When I'm Dead!

Yesterday, Wednesday, was special, as it was the birthday of my wife Ampy, 74. Early this morning, at about 3AM, she has this note for me, with the instruction to write about:

Sabi ni Father Monching, "para wala kayong (Father Monching says, so you will have no) REGRETS LATER, SHOW YOUR LOVE to your parents and loved ones NOW" (and that will include giving flowers while they can still see, smell and appreciate and enjoy them).

When Fr Monching said that, it was Mother's Day perhaps in 1992. Fr Monching Carillo was the second Parish priest of San Antonio De Padua, Los Baños, Laguna. He was beloved of maybe all who appreciated the gospel interlaced with good humor in his homilies based on what he had observed, including basketball games, movies and TV shows. When he said, "So you will have no regrets later, show your love to your parents and loved ones now," whether it was personal or second-hand experience, it was sincere nevertheless.

Ampy's note says:

Please search for the text and author of "Give The Flowers Now" used by Dr Tony Oposa Sr as title for his book.

Checking my email, the correct book title is "Give Me The Flowers… Now!" It was 14 years ago when Dr Oposa wrote his autobiography, quoting this poem:

Bring Me All Your Flowers Now

I would rather have a single rose
From the garden of a friend,
Than have the choicest flowers,
When my stay on Earth must end.

I would rather have the kindest words,
Which may now be said to me,
Than flattered when my heart is still –
And this life has ceased to be.

I would rather have a loving smile
From the friends I know are true,
Than tears shed 'round my casket,
When this world I've bade adieu!

Bring me all your flowers today
Whether pink, or white, or red.
I'd rather have one blossom now
THAN A TRUCKLOAD WHEN I'M DEAD!

RD RICHARDS

As quoted by Abigail Van Buren in Chicago Tribune, 08 January 1995. She says she published that poem "years ago" (I can't find it).

Today, I would rather have a single rose.
Today, I would rather have the kindest words.
Today, I would rather have a loving smile.
Today, bring me all your flowers!

How does Nike put it again? JUST DO IT! Ampy says: DO IT NOW!

Yes, sometime in mid-2005, I gained the friendship of Manila wonder surgeon Dr Antonio C Oposa Sr, who published that year his intellectual and entertaining autobiography titled Give Me The Flowers … Now! I loved reading that book, and I suggested to him in 2006 to write a sequel, and he said he was thinking of the title Give The Flowers Again!

I do not know if he began it; I know he did not finish it, as he died 26 December 2016. Long before that, in blogging, I had been writing positively about him again and again.

So, I did give him the flowers again and again!@517