Assunta & Jules: A baby before end of the year

Because they haven’t been seen together (as they used to be) on the showbiz scene lately, Assunta de Rossi and Jules Ledesma are being rumored to be on the verge of separating. Too soon? Barely four years into a controversial marriage? What gives?

Finally putting the rumor to rest, the irrepressible former Negros Occidental congressman exploded a little bomb by saying, "Sam and I are having a baby before end of this year. We’re finally going on a trip abroad, which has been long delayed, and it will be our real honeymoon. Since our marriage, we never really had an honest-to-goodness honeymoon because we’ve been both busy. In fact, as early as June or July, we’ll start working on our first baby."

Asked if they want to have a boy, Jules (who has a son and a daughter with his late first wife) said that it’s up to God to decide, as long as the baby comes out healthy.

"Do you know that there’s a way of making a boy or a girl?" Jules asked, much to the amusement of Assunta.

Asked how, Jules said, "Basta, there’s a way. I know how."

By the time they pack their bags for their "honeymoon," Jules shall have settled the knotty inheritance case involving the Ledesma clan which he has been tasked to sort out.

"That inheritance thing caused the delay of our vacation abroad," said Assunta who was worried Jules might suffer a heart attack because of the Herculean task he was tackling. "Thank God, everything has been settled."

To make a complicated matter simpler and a long story shorter, Jules and his relatives agreed to choose between getting their share or investing on an ethanol plant the Ledesmas were putting up. As they say, all’s well that ends well.

On their trip abroad, Assunta and Jules plan to drop by Italy to visit Assunta’s parents and to check the house she and younger sister Alessandra are building.

"My mom and I are okay now," said Assunta who married Jules against her mom’s wishes.

Angel spends a ‘charitable’ B-day

Instead of hosting a party as is the practice among showbiz denizens, Angel Locsin decided to celebrate her 21st birthday two days in advance Friday (April 21) last week by paying C.R.I.B.S. a visit and "making the day" of the charitable institution’s resident 20 babies and 28 teens. Highlight of the visit was the feeding program and the gift-giving.

On hand to help the Birthday Girl entertain the C.R.I.B.S. residents were Dennis Trillo, Mike Tan, Rea Nakpil and StarStruck’s Johann Santos, along with StarStruck Kids Ella Guevarra, JM Reyes, Sandy Talag, Madeleine Yu and Renz Juan.

Later that same day, Angel spearheaded a free eye check-up at the Robinson’s Place Manila for her favorite beneficiary, The Call Foundation, to which, unknown to many, she makes a donation every Christmas. Angel’s own father is totally blind, and that must be why she has a soft spot for The Call Foundation which takes care of the blind.

Also present at the Robinsons eye check-up event and the mall show were Dion Ignacio, Valerie Concepcion, Bugz Daigo, Jeric Rizalado, Vivo Ouano, Vaness del Moral and the S.O.P. Boys.

Angel wants to thank the following for making her birthday a special one: The Makati Eye Laser Center, Jag Jeans, Eskinol, Avon, WL Products, Happee Toothpaste, Head & Shoulders, Lotus Ballpens, Timex, Robitussin, Flywear and Consolidated Notebook.

Food for thought

Reacting to Funfare’s story about Richard Chen’s death, my good friend Robin Tong (who supplied me with books on "how to cope with the loss of a loved one" when my mom died four years ago) wants to share this quotation ("By Percy Bysshe Shelley, I guess") with Funfare readers:

Peace, peace. My brother is not dead, he is not asleep. He has awakened from the dream of life.

And also, the following eye-opening little story he called Live Life to the Fullest:

This is how you should live your life everyday.

Enjoy!

A friend of mine opened his wife’s underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package:

"This, – he said – isn’t any ordinary package."

He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.

"She got this the first time we went to New York, eight or nine years ago. She has never put it on, was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is it. He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothings he was taking to the funeral house. His wife had just died. He turned to me and said: "Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion".

I still think those words changed my life.

Now I read more and clean less.

I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.

I spend more time with my family, and less at work.

I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses every day.. I’ll wear new clothes to go the supermarket, if i feel like it.

I don’t save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I want to. The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary. If it’s worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now. I don’t know what my friend’s wife would have done if she knew she wouldn’t be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends.

She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I’d like to think she would go out for Chinese food, her favorite. It’s these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come.

I would regret it, because I would no longer see the friends I would meet, letters... that I wanted to write

"One of these days".

I would regret and feel sad, because I didn’t have time enough to tell my brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, how much I love them.

Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives..

And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day.

Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.

What’s up?

• The Cebu Institute of Medicine Alumni Association, Inc. (CIMAAI) will host a medical world congress on July 20 to 22 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel with the theme "Looking Beyond Fifty Years of Medical Excellence." The event is the opening salvo of the school’s grand golden-anniversary celebration to be held in 2007.

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