Loving Abundance

I met this 52 year old woman three years ago and learned to admire her for her versatility, agility and strength that defies her age.

She comes in four times a week and arrives about eight in the morning and is readily greeted by my Pomeranian called Victoria who suddenly acts like a child waiting to be carried  — complete with a cheery bark, a tail wagging greeting and a relieved smile when finally finding her place into waiting arms.

After their greeting ritual she goes about her business with the dog following her all day long.  This super woman first attends to our “home-based” mini store to do the daily inventory before proceeding to cook us breakfast, if we so choose to have one.

She then goes about cleaning the living room and bedrooms before doing laundry. In between all these, she manages to fix some minor electrical problem or fine tune a toilet flush, do some carpentry work and then move on to cook our lunch. All these while making sure the store customers who call over the gate are attended to in a flash.

After washing the dishes she goes about checking what needs to be done in the house else she may just get “bored” as she often commented before when she found nothing to do. This “boredom” made her suggest that I open a mini store and that she be the store keeper. How could I resist a willing spirit? She got her wish and I got me an extra monthly income.

The afternoons are allotted to doing ironing, mending clothes when necessary, and gardening, which she does so well that we grow some vegetables in the backyard now. Anything she touches grows healthy even in the worst soil content areas. She doesn’t have a green thumb she has green hands!

Before she leaves for home she cooks us dinner, does closing inventory for the mini store, washes the dishes and never misses to ask if we need anything else before she leaves. We cannot help but express our gratitude every time she does so for we know she has served us well.

She goes by the name of Elsa Berenguel, our very own Jill of All Trades and a Master of Loving Service.  It is not therefore surprising that we fondly call her “Nanay” which means Mother in English.

The everyday ripples of loving service she does to four different families, including her own, is enough evidence that she is an inspiring human being worthy to be featured and given honor. She is definitely one of the inspirational women around the world.

By:  Daisy Ba-ad