Those That Made My Young Girls Cry

"Who is this Whitney Houston, Tatay?", Vida, my 9-year old daughter asked me one morning while I was watching the news on the TV screen.
"She's a diva, the one who popularized songs like, "The Greatest Love of All" and "I Will Always Love You", my prompt reply.
"Ah, does she own a pet?", came the follow up. I was puzzled where the conversation will lead us. My mind was searching the logic of her rejoinder.
"I don't know. Why did you ask?", I answered sincerely.
"Her eyes were always sad. She must have had been mourning the deaths of her pets."

AV and her pet hen, Iyoy.

Vida and Tat scouting the waterfall in our orchard.

My kids love to have pets. Over the years, they have welcomed into their innocent lives the friendship of mice, rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, chickens, lovebirds, ducks, fish... They in the process tolerated damaged toys and bitten flip flops, endured the presence of a few lice, animal droppings and the inconvenience of waking early to attend to their needs. Early in life, their young hearts earned tender scars after having been stabbed many a number of times when Death paid them a visit and grabbed out of their small hands the lives of their beloved pets. There would be wailing and door-banging in my household as I sadly and solitarily traced my steps into the guava grove to prepare the place where those beloved pets will be interned.

To process their trauma, I always ask my girls to draw and write some epitaph for their departed pets. That way, after a few weeks their hearts will be ready to welcome another stranger whom again will nurse those tender scars yet in the future will make them cry.

Vita's interpretation of the afterlife of her pets, Sazhu, 
Penelope and Bush

Perhaps, Vida is right about her assumption. Whitney Houston must have some pets whose deaths had made her eyes look so sad. Perhaps, she must had been mourning their deaths many a number of times.