Since I* married my wife Leonita.  Here’s a picture of the two of us. It is a few years old, before I started battling Stage IV cancer.

I think the marriage Leonita and I have had has been a good one. It hasn’t been all happiness. We have no living children. Due to medical issues we both had, a pregnancy wasn’t easy to create. Leonita did get pregnant in the summer of 2002 and labored hard to bring our child into the world. Unfortunately Daniel died 14.5 hours after birth on January 26th, 2003.  Instead of children, we have two cats Eponine and Misay(Misay is Cat in the Philippine dialect of waray), and my mother-in-law lives with us. I get along well with Nanay.

The last two years haven’t been easy for either of us. My cancer recurred and metastisized. I also had major cardiac surgery last summer. Both of these have made working difficult and caused financial strains.  Leonita is making it through all this some how, I do worry what will happen if the cancer beats me and the odds are it will.

Neither of us foresaw any of what would happen in the years ahead when we tied the knot on May 30th 1989. Leonita and I were married that day in a civil ceremony before a judge in Tacloban City on the island of Leyte. The only others present were Leonita’s family. We did get married in a Catholic Church but that took place on June 17th. Some of my Navy buddies were in attendance for that but none of my family.  My Mom was dead already and Dad didn’t want to make the long trip out.

I couldn’t stand some of the ugly comments I saw in the thread about a Filipina who got murdered by her military husband. I’m sure there are some Filipinas who went into marriage for other reasons than love and the spouse got screwed.  During my time at Subic I saw a few. I also saw bad marriages where the Marine met someone in California, Arizona, North Carolina, Hawaii etc. Are all the women from those states to be condemned too? Two of my closest friends during my Subic days are still married to Filipinas, twenty-one and eighteen years later respectively. Mike Sherman, who was my best man, married one of Leonita’s cousins. They have five children today and are living in Jacksonville Florida.

Leonita and I have nothing special planned for the rest of today. We’re going to have one of these delicious roasts Target sells for dinner. After that, I will work out at the Gym for an hour, come home, and probably watch some season six Hawaii Five-0 with Leonita tonight.   She likes that show too.

*- Please note this is Bill writing, not GI. I left the Navy 20 years ago this fall.