I met a special friend way back in college.  I used to precede his name with “Kong”, a title addressed to an older brother.  I met him though Grace, my best friend in high school.  It happened this way… 
    
Grace, Winnie, Chona and I were really, really close during our entire college years.  We ate together, studied together and sometimes slept together.  We looked forward to always being together.  When somebody wanted to court one of us, all the rest would serve as bodyguards.  We used to chide everyone, telling them how pitiful was the guy who wanted to court anyone of us.  It was like courting four girls. 

     One time, in an important school function, the four of us were chosen as usherettes.  Naturally, we had a group picture taken. Grace secured the picture and showed it to her boyfriend, Bong.  It happened that Bong was with his longtime friend, Felino. Grace asked Felino or Nok (his pet name) to choose a girl he wanted to date.  Nok chose the mestiza-type, Chona.  And he was introduced to all of us.  True to our blood compact, we all played bodyguards to Chona when Nok tried to befriend her.

     I developed a special friendship with Kong Nok.  He was nine years my senior.  Kong Nok was very simple.  He always carried a smiling face.  He was very gentle, down-to-earth, kind, thoughtful, jolly and everything that is in a friend.  He loved to bring us home from school.  Whenever he paid a special visit to Chona, he always sought the permission of my mother to accompany him.  We had a very pure friendship.  We could talk anything under the sun. 
     When I was about to graduate from college, Nok asked two special favors from me that he wished I could do for him after my graduation, namely; 1) to drop the address “Kong” and; 2) to go out alone with him for a dinner.  I made a promise!  And I also told him that I chose him to be my partner in our graduation ball.

     I will make the long story short. After serious prayer and nine-hour novena prayers at the Carmel Monastery, Nok and I considered seriously our relationship.  We became lifetime real friends on the day we exchanged “I do’s”.  That was November 27, 1982.  

     As I reflected on my relationship with Nok, in gratitude I bring my thoughts to Mama Mary who protected me all along.  Yes, she listened to my childhood prayer, “Oh Mary by Thy holy and Immaculate Conception keep my body pure and my soul holy”.  Mama Mary interceded to Jesus for me to preserve my purity for the man I was going to marry.  To this day, I humbly recognize the power of intercession.  And I was blessed to offer the best gift that a woman could give to her husband on the day of their wedding. 

     Nok blessed my life and continues to do so.  I could never imagine my life without him.  He embodies the traits that St. Paul admonished Titus to look in men … “sound in the faith, loving and steadfast”.  Nok is God’s best gift to me.