1st
Remembering Yellow, Remembering Cory
I remember yellow. It wasn’t the light of fear. It wasn’t a warning to beware our fears made into light. I was seven years and two days old when EDSA happened. We didn’t know better then, well I certainly can’t claim to, but my cousins and I, we had yellow shirts, and formed “L” with our hands. It was play even as we chanted her name. The significance of that Sea of Yellow, would later be understood. At the heart of that Sea, propelled a new dawn for the Philippines. It was a Sunrise amidst a Monsoon of challenges that would last six years, and the Filipino survived it because this Sunrise was Powered by the Will and Faith of a remarkable woman, a widow, a housewife, simply called, “Cory”.
Time.com has “People Power’s Philippine Saint: Corazon Aquino, 1933-2009”, and it would be great to reread “Woman of the Year,” first published in 1987 and watch her inaugural. If you’re up to it, watch Mrs. Aquino as she addressed the United States Congress in joint session and the enthusiastic applause of the Congress.
And now an era that she inaugurated for the Filipino is over. If Cory was the sunrise, surely with her passing, a darkness blankets this nation as we collectively grieve. Her six years was filled by monsoon that hardly let up. When her term was up, it ushered the brighter day of the Ramos years and only because of her sacrifices and choices. If Estrada’s reign was afternoon and now, Gloria’s night, perhaps it is fitting we do remember Cory now for what she gave us: a beginning.
The words, “a grateful nation thanks you for your service,” seem hollow when applied to Corazon Aquino. The Filipino owes Cory Aquino a debt that can never be repaid, only rejuvenated as we carry on, as we soldier on, building our nation.
The Sunrise Cory heralded, it touched millions and generations to come. The flood of prayers and thanksgiving from a nation of Catholics seem apt to send such a devote Catholic on the next journey. On a personal note, I did not know her beyond books and television and news but I am a Filipino and share the debt we owe this remarkable woman. I join my countrymen: “Paalam at Salamat, Tita Cory; Goodbye, Thank you, Cory.”
* * * image is owned by the US Government and is in the public domain.
