My Life With Ana




Sorry, this is a selfish post, but something that I had to do.


I went through my photo archives yesterday (incidentally, exactly four weeks since she flew) to dig up these 12 shots that barely represent the short time I was privileged to have her light in my life. I realized that we took a lot of pictures--of each other, of our cats--but only a few with the two of us in it, mostly taken by timer or with one of our outstretched arms.


We didn't take pictures of our leisurely dinners talking about our planned book of essays, which inevitably never got done, because the conversations always strayed off to more urgent things. Like family and growing up. And love =) We never got to go on our writing retreat somewhere south, or anywhere on a trip together.


I don't even have a picture of the last time I saw her, the day before her 29th birthday. We had a pictorial at her house, and I used her SLR to take pictures of her with Vince and Nino. I don't know where those photos are now, since they don't seem to be in her laptop =(


How do you know you'll only get to spend two years of your life (and half of it long-distance) with a kindred spirit so difficult to find? You don't. So for starters, be sure to take lots of pictures together; the ordinary moments are the best ones. You'll thank me for that advice.

Comments

  1. Janjan PerezAugust 6, 2007 at 4:15 AM

    this, for me, is the perfect picture of the two of you together. it captures both your personalities perfectly, and summarizes that amazing bond between you both.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Win ChiongAugust 6, 2007 at 4:16 AM

    Bronzed beauties. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aileen GuirnelaAugust 6, 2007 at 4:24 AM

    beautifully captured...both women with extraordinary talents.

    ReplyDelete
  4. XXXX YYYYAugust 6, 2007 at 4:40 AM

    you do look like sisters:) parehong pretty:)

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  5. Eric cAugust 6, 2007 at 9:49 AM

    the japanese pose :-) great smiles:-)

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  6. sunny castilloAugust 6, 2007 at 1:06 PM

    wow... this dive says it all! god bless...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mimi Herrera VillaruelAugust 7, 2007 at 12:18 AM

    thanks for sharing, jeneen.

    you both are beautiful people.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jemi AquinoAugust 7, 2007 at 4:23 AM

    neen, it is uncanny how much you two look alike.
    and it's not selfish at all.

    HUGS,
    jemi

    ReplyDelete
  9. kitty galoreAugust 7, 2007 at 6:53 AM

    ganahan ko ani, jen..

    ReplyDelete
  10. Crisanto CayonAugust 7, 2007 at 7:02 AM

    mirror effect... it's good to see you and Ana smile here. i thought of you before reading this. mao diay.

    ReplyDelete
  11. angie nellasAugust 7, 2007 at 8:46 AM

    I have always liked this picture of you too goofing around with your dive gears on :D Thanks for this Jeneen. ..surely brings back good memories of Ana. Wished I had a photo with her :C

    ReplyDelete
  12. C o c o y ..August 7, 2007 at 12:50 PM

    i emebered taking this photo neen..

    ReplyDelete
  13. C o c o y ..August 7, 2007 at 12:51 PM

    i remembered taking this photo neen..

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:38 AM

    hi, mark. that was a happy time, wasn't it? typical days with ana =) how you doing in dubai?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:45 AM

    really, you have no photo at all with her? =( i know, i'm very lucky to have these. this one particularly had me laughing. the moment we enetered her house, she had me put on the gear and got her tripod ready as if she had been planning this pictorial FOR MONTHS! count on her to dream up something crazy like this and act like it's the most natural thing in the world

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:46 AM

    me too =D one of my favorites!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:51 AM

    i have funnier versions of this ;-) God bless you, too! where in the world are you?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:53 AM

    thanks, mimi =) my pleasure, showing this to the world. only wish i had more. how are you doing?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:55 AM

    japanese quickly becoming filipino, like everything else ;-) thanks, eric. and where have you guys been diving lately? will you be around on the 40th day?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:57 AM

    ay, maraming salamat po! kaya dapat talaga sumama sa magaganda para mahawa sa kagandahan. kahit pretty by association na lang hehe. love the headshot =)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 12:58 AM

    THANK YOU. hugs =)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 1:00 AM

    thanks, aileen =) this shot was i think taken by the (now famous) boy wonder charles nikolas buenconsejo =)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 1:04 AM

    thanks, jan =) thank God for soft lighting ;-) this was outsde the restroom, while we were waiting for our turn.


    but truly, this was a memorable time, the weeks before i moved out of cebu. we'd met up in ormoc--she after her workshop in tacloban, and me after my backpacking tour of palawan with my father--to attend a wedding. when the music started playing, we discovered that we both loved to dance (never mind how we looked). so we took off the cumbersome heels and just danced and danced till midnight, even after all the others stopped dancing =) i've never danced again like that since then.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jeneen GarciaAugust 11, 2007 at 1:08 AM

    kaw naman, para namang di kami parehong smiling ;-) sige na nga, siya lang yung parating smiling.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Mimi Herrera VillaruelAugust 11, 2007 at 4:39 AM

    wish i had even just one.

    ok ra, getting by :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Crisanto CayonAugust 11, 2007 at 8:57 AM

    kaw naman (din!)... Oo, palagi kitang nakikitang naka smile pero mas nangungusap mata mo in the rare times I have you around.

    anyway, di ba nga never ko kayong nakita ni Ana together in person, thus, a comment like that.

    ReplyDelete
  27. james pizarroAugust 12, 2007 at 8:27 AM

    These are the moments we live for. I just sent an old picture of my friend John and Debbie, back in the restaurant business in the 1990s and another friend Edgar, felt so nostalgic about it. I looked through old pictures of Lola and our family sent by your mom, and felt truly homesick, like I haven't felt since the first time I left the Philippines for America. Even while I was in England, I have built the reputation for taking lots of pictures, often in celebratory times and awkward times. I tell you, these are priceless. I feel so out of place when I can't find my camera or readily available. My dear friend Kelly's memorial had lots of flowers. I thought, you know, she's just like that. Beautiful, fragile and only with us a short time. But like flowers, they touch our heart and spirits like no other. Just like our dear friends.

    ReplyDelete
  28. lou buenconsejoSeptember 5, 2007 at 10:34 AM

    hey hus famous??

    ReplyDelete
  29. e_guy 1226October 17, 2008 at 11:49 PM

    barefoot cebu, the finned traveller, sorely missed, unforgotten, tnx for sharing these photos.....

    ReplyDelete
  30. Jeneen GarciaNovember 1, 2008 at 4:44 PM

    i am happy to know that she continues to be loved even by those lives she touched only briefly and remotely through Multiply. may our lives be a testament of how she made us richer.

    ReplyDelete

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