Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama joined relatives during their visit at the Cebu Memorial Park on All Saints’ Day (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON).
For 15 years, former Cebu City mayor, Michael Rama was always busy visiting all cemeteries in Cebu City during All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day to check on crowd security and other concerns.
Rama would be up early in the morning to start his cemetery rounds as mayor in the last six years and as vice mayor and head of city hall’s police coordinating and advisory council from 2001 until 2010.
So it was a breath of fresh air, he said, to be able to spend much more time with relatives last Tuesday when the Ramas gathered to visit the graves of their departed loved ones at the Cempark Cemetery in Banilad.
“With this new situation, it’s not stressful. I don’t have to think of all cemeteries. I always only get myself to be free when November 2 midnight will come. But now, I have my time. It brought me to some relaxing mourning of November 1,” he told Cebu Daily News.
Earlier that day, he also visited Carreta Cemetery where his grandparents from his mother’s side are buried; while in the afternoon, he visited Queen City Memorial Gardens and shared lunch with relatives, uncles and aunts.
Despite the rain on Tuesday evening, Rama’s cousins, nephews and nieces gathered in an open area at Cempark, feasting on lechon, puso (hanging rice), dinuguan, fresh lumpia, lechon manok and what the Rama clan calls as their “famous Rama Compound version of bam-i noodles with soup”.
Rama’s parents Natividad and Fernando are buried at Cempark, beside his deceased brother and sisters and other relatives including former Basak San Nicolas barangay captain George Rama who died last year.
“Let them know that we love them that’s why we are all here and we will be praying for them,” said Rama as he led the family prayer before dinner.
Among those who attended the open-air gathering was Rama’s cousin, actress Annabelle and her husband, Eddie Gutierrez. Relatives from abroad were also home just for the occasion.
George’s 17-year-old son, Paul Edward Rama, told CDN that it has been hard after his father passed away due to broncho pneumonia in January 2015.
“He was the man of the house. Dako siya nga haligi sa balay nga nawala (He was a pillar and he’s gone). And since I’m the only child and the only son, I have to take responsibility and play a bigger role in the family,” he told CDN.
“Every year, we lose a family member, it brings the family closer and we are able to cherish our moments together. It makes the bond stronger,” he said.
Every time he visits his father’s grave, Paul said he would kiss his father’s tombstone before leaving.
After the gathering, Rama clan members proceeded to their family mausoleum located at the rear end of Cempark where the remains of Don Vicente Rama, the former mayor’s grandfather, and his wife, Catalina are laid to rest.
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