My mom told me stories about her childhood from time to time, but I never got a complete picture of her early life, except to say that she was a "Brownie" (Girl Scout) and sang a lot to lift peoples' spirits.  She was good at Mathematics and Chemistry, and always a contender for the top marks in school.  She went to Mandarin/English school and could speak both foreign languages perfectly well when she graduated from Teachers College at University of Philippines.  She grew up speaking "Chabacano" - which she described laughingly as "Spanish without grammar".  She also spoke Tagalog.  She was born in Mindanao, which is a Muslim part of the Phlippines.  She was raised Catholic and was devout.  She was a "prayer warrior" in the words of my late father, Benito Carlos Gutierrez.  She told me stories about how her maternal grandmother used to rinse her hair with coconut milk and lime juice. She was well loved, and well raised, especially by her grandmother...

She wrote long journals in her conversations with her Abba God.  I have failed to keep them all, but they were evidence that she believed in an Abba, which means "Father" to a child, God - One in Whom you are free to confide in and ask for guidance - One Who is Co-Eternally united in Purpose in the Holy Trinity - first, YHWH, then Christ Jesus/Yeshua/Yesu/Jesu, then the Holy Spirit, Who was sent by Jesus through returning to the Father Abba God after His death.  I am open to possibility in sharing this, but essentially, Mom was our spiritual teacher who instructed me to read the Gospel of John - for a start in reading God's Word.

The patience she taught me was such a gift.  Forgiveness, too, for it liberates.