Well yesterday I was notified that a man I know here died the day after heart surgery.  He was married to a very sweet Filipina.  Now he is gone, the thoughts are about his widow. Did he have any joint savings to provide for her? I know their home was rented, so she does not have a home any more. I had heard she was estranged from her family so she is unable to return to them, of if she does, it will be a difficult situation. One thing in her favor is she is still young and attractive, but there are many young and attractive ladies here in the Philippines.

So, here is a sweet lady who dedicated her past few years to an older foreigner man. They were married for a few years and now he is gone.  Possibly, so is her financial support. I am not sure of her age or her schooling. Here in the Philippines jobs are difficult to get and most companies only hire people under the age or 30.

Hearing about his death, and the situation his widow is now in made me think about my own life. I am an American and my wife is a Filipina. I am not yet of the age to collect my Social Security Pension and have just a small amount of savings in an investment in the States. A Filipina wife cannot receive my Government pension if I die unless she had lived for a minimum of 6 months legally in the States as my wife.

What is this all about, well, now with this man’s passing, it made me think about Elena and what will happen if I die.

The only close family I have in the States is my mother and one brother. Unless something unknown happens to me, I will probably out live my mom. With my brother, we are not close and hardly ever communicate.  He is also older and probably will not outlast me either.
Well back to the subject or this article. It made me think, what will happen if I die and what I leave behind.  I will leave behind a loving wife. As any good loving husband, he wants to make sure his wife is provided for upon his death. Will she have enough money from me to live well? Luckily we have 3 nieces and 2 nephews who love us as if we were their mother and father, but they will have their own life and how much support they will be able to provide her.

I now plan to email my financial advisor, which I had not thought of doing until now to ask if there are any difficulties changing my beneficiary of my savings from my mother to Elena. IF there is any problem having the money go to a foreign national living in the Philippines.
Another thought, I am Jewish. I do not practice my family’s religion and I feel after death, I will not be around to worry about my body. In the Jewish religion a body is to be buried within 48 hours of death and then the family will morn at home where friends can visit to express their condolences. At a Jewish funeral home the casket is in another room or hidden by screens. At a Catholic wake the casket is up front and in full view.

Elena is a Roman Catholic and in her religion families have the body on display in at the mortuary for days or even weeks. So I wonder what Elena will decide to do at the time of my demise. I tried to talk to her about it, but she just says, “Let’s not discuss this; we will just have to live forever.”

I never liked visiting cemeteries. I always prefer to think of my relatives and friends who have passes of happy times and do not want my last memories of them in a casket or a stone with their name on it. I feel a photo of me at a happy time where the person who is looking will think of that time and feel glad to have been part of my life and not looking at a headstone or a memory of me laid out in a casket.

With that, my preference is being cremated and my ashes just disposed of.
Here in the Philippines people do not like to talk of mortality so the thoughts of the future is not often discussed so it is difficult for me to even talk of this to Elena.
I really do not need a will since I only have my invested savings in the US and our home here is in Elena’s name.

Let me know what you think of this and if you’re an Expat, what your plans are.

I woke this morning to find my nephew and his girlfriend already gone from the house to work. If you do not know this fact, most jobs here are 6 days a week.

I planned to spend the day at home alone and catch up on some computer and internet work that I have been neglecting. Some of it is making up some other websites, kind of niche sites to try to make some money since this is my baby, but now doing so well in the financial areas.

About 9am I got a text from a good friend who I have not spent any quality time with for a while. We planned to meet at, oh yes again McDonald’s around 12 noon.

I decided to leave early and do something near our meeting place and I noticed he was already there. We had an early lunch and then drove around a little before driving back closer to where his car was left and relax somewhere.

Even though traffic was less than a normal Saturday it was still traffic. The malls were open as well at the coffee shops. We were going to take his laptop to be looked at but found the 2 stores I know were closed. Good for them, a 3 or 4 day weekend.

For me it was a nice day. I enjoy talking to him and our friendship is growing and the trust level increasing. We ended up at BluGre in Landco and enjoyed their Jazz music playing in the background.

I am not sure what tomorrow will bring, but thankfully Elena and the girls will return in the late afternoon to return our life to normal.

I will report on my adventures and observations of my Easter Sunday. If you watch the news, you will get to see all the fanatics in Manila having their hands nailed as they are crucified.

I stayed in the house today sweating in front of a fan and relaxed most of the day. My nephew and his girlfriend spent last night here and was here all day.

Even though Elena had made Penni Pasta with meat sauce in the house, they wanted chicken. What happened to meatless Friday and eating fish? So my nephew and I jumped into my car and we drove to McDonald’s. Here McDonald’s sells Fried Chicken with either a side of rice or spaghetti. We got 3 mel packs with rice and an apple pie for me and came home for a nice quiet dinner.

While we were out I noticed McDonalds, Jollibee  and ChowKing were open and crowded. A few bakeries were open too so nobody wil starve. A gas station was also open.

Even though traffic was light, it was heavier than I remembered last year.

Tomorrow will be a more normal day.

On Easter Sunday most Filipinos go to early mass at Church and then to the beaches for some “Fun in the Sun”

To all that observe, Have a Blessed Easter.

Today I will again go out and see how the city is getting ready to shut down. Tomorrow is Good Friday and practically every business is closed. The malls will be closed, the restaurants too. It is a ghost town with everyone at home or in Church.

With Elena and the girls away, I just hope the internet will not crash, at least I can surf.

Happy Holy Week to all that observe.

Friday is Good Friday and the whole city and probably the country closes down. Last year a friend drove me around Davao City to show me main streets, shortcuts and places I had heard of but did not know where they were. The streets were deserted. Few cars, pedestrians and even hardly a jeepney.

Well, here we are again. But for me this year is different. Elena and our nieces who live with us are going to the Provinces to spent the holiday with her family in Bislig.

In America, I lived alone for many years. I cooked and cleaned my home by myself. Since living here, Elena and the girls do everything in the house. Now I need to take care of me myself.

There are many restaurants I can go eat my meals but on Friday there is nothing open. I guess I will cook and just sit home and work on the Internet. Good thing that does not close.

Here in the Philippines, a predominately Catholic country, Holy week is a very big deal. Schools closed from Wednesday through Sunday and practically every business closed on Good Friday.

There is one practice in the Philippines that makes me wonder where devotion ends and insanity starts (this is only my opinion). In one of the provinces there are devoted Catholics that believe in flagellation and/or crucifixion as a way to show there devotion or repent for their sins. Some beat their backs with bamboo and others have themselves crucified.

On Good Friday a friend of mine offered to drive me around to show me shortcuts and places I have not known about or if I had, how to get to them. One problem here is with the crazy driving habits, it is hard to look at and remember street names and also, most roads are so curved, you do not realize a cross street can cut you over to somewhere you usually drive around to get to.

We left about 11AM and there was hardly any traffic. It was fun but a little spooky seeing streets usually full with cars and pedestrians empty.

A lot of family’s go to the beach after Church services. We had a busy week last week with all the shopping for some repairs being done in the house, we just relaxed at home. Also one of our nephews who was living with us while looking for employment, and then returned home for Holy week, came back to pack his personal things since he received a job near his home. And then another nephew came here on Easter Sunday so he could apply for his passport. He has been offered a position in Saudi Arabia as a transmitter technician.

Well today, Monday morning we had to get out to the markets to replenish our supplies for another week. With so many businesses closed for a long weekend supplies were still a little thin. Even some of the fish were not available since they have to undergo health tests before they can be sold. But we were able to find enough for our needs and look forward to next week when all should be back to normal.