In 2003 I visited The Philippines after meeting the person online who would turn out to be my partner and husband.  This part of the country is just outside Manila in the Province of Bulacan (the word ‘bulak’ means cotton, which there was quite a bit of when King Philip of Spain took over the islands in the 16th century).  The little barangay (community) of San Jose is part of the larger municipality called Plaridel.

In the yard of the family I was staying with in San Jose were all kinds of trees and plants.  This was to be the first of three visits I made over three years until I brought  my partner to Canada in 2007.  He is now an LPN in a geriatric facility here in Kamloops, and a Canadian citizen, and has come to love our -20C winters and +40C summers.  We were married by my Pastor sister…