Book on angel’s journey to be launched today
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— A book about an “angel” and her journey will be launched today at the Fiesta Hall of Midori Hotel and Casino in Clark Fr eepor t .
Authored by BBI honcho, former Angeles City councilor and professor Dr. Ireneo “Bong” Alvaro and wife Enr. Irene Gopez Alvaro, “Fiona: A Journey with an Angel” chronicles the short life of the couple’s youngest daughter Fiona Lucina, who spent almost the entire four months of her life in the intensive care unit of St. Luke’s Hospital, and how she changed the lives of many people with her touching experiences and encounters with them.
“Fiona is supposedly our youngest daughter after her brothers Carlo Nicholas and Francis Jericho (FJ). We prepared for her coming but she had compl i cat i ons.
She spent only four months in this world, three and half at the ICU of St. Lukes. But amazing things happened in those four months. So we thought, we cannot hoard what is amazing, what is wonderful, what is good and we must share it. this [book] project is the answer,” the Alvaro couple said in an interview over DwRW 95.1 FM’s Talakayan over the weekend.
“She (Fiona) is frail, weak, in bed, but even with all of those, she was able to make a story and touch other people’s lives whom she encountered and the book reveals how and why,” Bong and Irene said.
A year after Fiona left, the Alvaro couple shared, preparations for the book were done, but wounds were still fresh and they cannot write yet, but the conviction that they must share Fiona’s journey was compelling that they started the book formally December last year.
“We wrote the whole content. There were contributors for reaction and reflection like Apu Ceto {Archbishop Emeritus Paciano Aniceto, Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes with her ‘power beyond science’ and direct experience with Fiona, a friend from New York, Dr. John Ayudtud, founder of super minds system and archbishop of Church without walls with his ‘metamorphosis,’Rev. Helen Cunanan and Rev. Romeo Liwanag, both Methodist ministers, student priests, Atty. Imelda Quiambao, Dr. Gopez, the mother of Irene and her sister Elenor Gopez, our son Carlo wrote from Australia, while FJ contributed through drawings and did the cover,” the Alvaros said.
The book, they noted, is about suffering, torment, pain, but on the other side, the story of victory and hope.
“There is a story also of the barometer of hope na base sa gusto natin. But there is another perspective we have here: Dapat nakabase iyung iyung paghihingi at pangangarap base sa Lumikha. His will is better. When we submitted, we found out He has better plans. It’s all about lakas ng loob, faith, pag-asa. It’s faith in God, inspiration, and bringing back to God,” they said.
Irene, admitting she is not a writer, found it many times too difficult to write but said that when she thinks about their daughter, the compelling reason and conviction to share to others arises. “It is primarily to inspire, not to boast nor surface anybody, but the inspiration that can be uprooted from the experience and sufferings of my daughter.”
“Pag naghahanap ka ng anghel, or extraordinary powers— in the introduction— you’ll find out that you need not be strong nor huge, you need not be young or of age, you need not be beautiful nor handsome or famous, to be an inspiration to others. God’s angels require no super qualities or extraordinary abilities. They are mostly the common and ordinary,” Bong added.
“Fiona’s case is different and a lot have benefitted dahil iyung procedures, noon pa lang na-discover. The Fiona procedure, they called it, means an emergency, and they know what to do in the hospital. Behind all these pains, frustrations, challenges, sufferings, there is beauty behind it,” they furthered.
The book, they stressed, allowed them to survive and taught them a lesson.
“It was a struggle, but the world must not stop. Eventually, we will sell this book later but proceeds will go to a foundation,” they said of Fiona: A Journey with an Angel,”which is being launched in time for Fiona Lucina’s 11th death anniversary.
— JTD