One of the hardest fact any child can accept is the fact that his parents are only human.

Thr proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.

I just spent Mother's Day at the hospital. Looking after my mom.

Her blood pressure has been unusually high last weekend. The doctor said it may have been that way for some time now, and that she may have just simply been ignoring it.

My mom's never been a stranger to the hospital. Most of the nurses even know her by name, since she was the one taking care of my sister and my cousin during their sickly years when they were confined almost every month.

Most of the nurses even thought my sister was the one getting confined.

So there she was. On a sick bed. On Mother's Day. With only me to watch her.

And for the first time in I don't know how long, I was afraid.

I may have been over-reacting. I mean the doctor assured she wasn't in any kind of danger. She was just supposed to undergo a series of tests. She's merely there to get some much needed rest.

I guess that's what just bothered me.

She's a mother. I always saw her as super human, larger than life. She's a teacher, yaya, masahista, guidance counsellor, nurse, etc. all in one.

But then one day she visits a doctor and you're reminded of the fact that this can't go on forever.

Its an abrupt awakening for someone like me. The fact that the natural wear and tear of the human body can touch even my mother, the one person whose presence is as constant as the sun itself.

My sister and I were planning to take Mama on a little shopping spree last Sunday. She's supposed to go to Lipa this week for a retreat and we've been saving up to buy her things for the trip, you know, as a little Happy Mother's Day gift (This is supposed to be her first out-of-town trip since 1992). Its was supposed to be a surprise.

Instead, we were the ones who were suprised.

And so as I look at her, asleep in her bed, with boxful of medicines near her, I realize that Mother's Day isn't the, as Alpha put it in her blog, the Hallmark holiday I always thought it was.

Mother's day may have been created by card makers so they would have sales at this time of the year or they may not. (I always thought it was the former).

What I've realized is that its something that mothers actually deserve. And at times they may actually need it.

Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers out there.

Pahabol: I asked a friend of mine what gift he would give his mom for Mothers' Day. He said, "Mothers'Day was created by Hallmark so that they could sell more cards. Besides, I don't need to give her a gift." When I asked him why, he said, "Because every day I treat her like its Mother's Day. You should do the same."