Elsietampong's Blog

The Christmas Tree that Ralph made this year was unusual. It was made of clay pots piled up on top of each other to shape a tree. Last year, Ralph used dried leaves to make up the Christmas tree.

Our tradition for our Christmas Party for the office was to hold it on Mom’s birthday on December 20th, just to honor her for putting up the foundation for the business. On December 29, 2008, Mom was all made up, but I decided she should go to the hospital instead because she started feeling bad. In retrospect, I should have let her enjoy her party and should have brought her to the hospital afterwards. That was the year we had the construction of the Knysna in full swing, so we had 50 workers who had missed lunch, knowing there would be lechon served plus lots of other food. When I got back at 8:30 p.m. from the hospital, the workers had cleaned out all the food, leaving me with just a few bones of the lechon and one piece of cake. Even these items had to be zealously kept by the cook, Fely, for me.

A few weeks after Mom’s birthday, on February 5, 2009, Mom passed on to the afterlife. The Christmas Party of 2009 was held on another day. Since we were faced with the debt over the construction of Knysna, we just gave the compulsory 13th month pay, and that was it! I didn’t offer any additional benefits since I knew the ownership was now a shared one.

In November of 2009, the siblings met again to decide who would own which property. So the incomes went to specific persons, and the expat owners named their company informally as “DONITI”– letters from their names.

This Year’s Party was the happiest Christmas party the Office ever had. There were now several owners of the Company, so there were more donors of gifts. Dra. Grace brought her bag of games. Instead of “pin the tail on the donkey”, we had “pin the nose on the Clown.” She also had “draw your face”. She also brought prizes– snacky foodstuff, mostly. The DONITI authorized the purchase of ham for everyone and some prizes. My Newgrange Condotel started to have guests, so I was able to think, yes, I can afford to donate some prizes, too.

Pictured above are Grace, Ralph and me in front, and the accountants Luz,Cheryl, Anna and Anna at the back. The DONITI execute their wishes via the accountants. Grace is a co-owner of the Agustina, and Ralph has been the “soul behind all the buildings.” He was the one who decided to return to the Philippines to help my ageing Mom and Dad to run the business. He gave up his post as a UN Official to take early retirement. (He was 57 years old then.). When we got back, he nagged me to “maximize the value of the property”. He didn’t stop until I demolished each building one by one and rebuild them into what they are now. When I was done, he would landscape the roof gardens. In San Luis, Pampanga, he commuted almost daily from Manila to oversee the renovation of the San Luis house. If I didn’t want to spend on things he thought were essential — split aircons in every room, a generator to supply electricity–Ralph dove into his pocket to buy it himself. In the Baguio property, Ralph used half of his lump sum retirement pay from the UN to reconstruct the house that he built for his mother. Of course, the original house also came from his funds. But the property is officially the Francos.

We didn’t have lechon this year, because lechon costs P5,000, and you can already have that amount as the budget for lunch for 25 people. Here is Merto and Norlie over the coals, so to speak.

We served the children first to make sure they would be fed, but the men came quickly after the women. We normally station the kitchen staff on one side of the table to make sure no one puts too much on their plate.

The Newgrange roof garden is large enough for a crowd of 100 people. We keep the lights dripping from the covered roof the whole year, so that, they can light up the place at night anytime there is a party.

During the presentation portion, we had the workers doing a cha-cha number and Ralph’s secretaries did their own modern dance.

Below are the Household Staff — Nelly and Fely in front, with Liza, Beth and Veron at the back.

Next to them are the Raffle winners Carla, Monching and Sam.

.

The highlight of the evening was when the lights were turned down and all the staff, with candles in their hands, each gave me a rose, as a gesture of thanksgiving, while Sam strum his guitar, singing this song, “Handog” (google “Handog” by “Florante”).

Parang kailan lang
Ang mga pangarap ko’y kay hirap abutin
Dahil sa inyo
Narinig ang isip ko at naintindihan
Kaya’t itong awiting aking inaawit
Nais ko’y kayo ang handugan

The translation goes like this:

It seems like a short while ago, it was difficult to reach my dreams
Because of you, I was able to reach my goal
I would like to show my gratitude even with this song

It seems like a short while ago, I came close to begging in the streets
Because of you, my belly and pockets were filled
Therefore this song that I am singing, I would like to dedicate to you

It seems like it was just a short time ago,
they didn’t like to listen to my songs
Because of you, my thoughts were heard and understood
It is because of this that I count you as my trusted friend.

I will grow old and pass,
But I would like to leave this song in memory of you
Because of the one time we were together….

The staff knew they were saying good-bye to my leadership of the company that I had worked hard to put up in the last twelve years.

This entry was posted on December 24, 2010 at 4:07 am and is filed under Staff stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.