A friend once told me that men can be likened to champagne or orange juice.

The bad boys are like champagne. You know that type. You feel high when u drink champagne, but you get a nasty hangover the next day.

Bad boys are exciting. They are intoxicating to be with. Potentially addictive. But boy, do they leave a nasty after taste.

The nice guys are like orange juice. Orange juice is nice when you taste it. Good for you. Pleasant. But you don’t get high with good old orange juice. The soul mate. Best friend. The guy who is best for you. Whom smart girls would choose. Orange juice.

Which is yours?

Who did you fall in love with?

Which are you drawn to?

Champagne or orange juice.

Do share your experiences.

Fresh out of school, a young woman and her friends boarded a ship for a fun cruise. Hey, when you’re young, the world’s your oyster. There are so many things to see. So many experiences waiting for you.

The young lady,  vibrant and beautiful caught the eye of a gorgeous hunk. It was love at first sight.

Imagine being whisked away into a fairy tale romance, on a leisure cruise. The waters around, sometimes tranquil, other times tumultuous.

So he wasn’t a prince who had some kingdom at his beck and call but he was a perfect gentleman. Everything she could hope for in a guy.

He spoke of marriage. They would meet again after the cruise, to be declared husband and wife.

She gave in to the passion that engulfed them. They were as good as wed.

As the cruise ended, her lover gave a a beautifully wrapped gift, making her promise not to open it until she got home. Her heart leaped. Was it an engagement ring?

Once home and family hugs were exchanged, she rushed to her room, tore off the wrapping, eager to see the promise.

To her horror, the promise was one of death. The gift was a tiny coffin.

In it were the words “welcome to the world of AIDS.”

The lady, from Australia, shared her tale as a warning, hoping none others would be tricked the way she was.

When my grandpa was young, his father remarried. Upset, the youth ran away from home and joined the crew on a ship, leaving his native home, Singapore.

Sailing from shore to shore, he met and fell in love on an island in Indonesia.

His step mom loved the runaway boy and sent his uncles to scour the islands for her step son.

Eventually, his uncle found him and persuaded my grandpa to come home.

Starry eyed grandma followed my hunky grandpa (he was an athlete who represented Malaya in the iron man games) back to Singapore.

Years passed. Grandma bore grandpa seven sons and one daughter.

Her once svelte, hourglass figure was gone.

She fell ill. Grandpa spent his fortune on doctors, trying to find a cure. She became morbidly obese and needed help to move around.

Grandpa, still in great shape loved her and faithfully tended to her needs. They survived a world war and raised a huge family together.

She died.

Grandpa, a chain smoker quit smoking in memory of her. He never puffed a cigarette again.

That twinkle in his eyes vanished with her death.

Everyday, for over a decade, he spoke about going home to her. Love lasted beyond the grave. Christians, he longed for his reunion with his love and wife in heaven.

He had a stroke and was paralyzed from waist down.

One day, he told one of his sons he was going home. He said goodbye to his loved ones.

The next day, he had a massive heart attack.

Doctors could not save him.

He died.

He looked happier in death than he had since grandma passed away.

He was finally reunited.. with his love.

Father’s day is the 3rd Sunday of June.

I was surfing the net looking for ideas this Father’s day when I stumbled on this story. Of a father who gave up one of his kidneys to save the life of his baby girl.

Like any proud parents of a much wanted baby, Ghassan and his wife, Dena,  were horrified when in Oct 4, 2005, their 10-week-old bundle of joy, Liza turned blue.

The life of their little sunshine was threatened. She stopped breathing.

The paramedics resuscitated her and had her rushed to the hospital.

It was there that the consultant told her parents that their little girl had kidney failure.

She needed a new liver and a kidney in order to live.

By July 2006,  the little girl’s situation was affecting her heart. To save her life, her father donated part of his liver to his precious daughter. That operation was done in September 2006.

On May 1 2007, Ghassan donated one of his kidneys to his girl, so that she could live a normal life.

The full story at daily mail

mother and baby depicting a mother's love

In times of disaster, the human spirit prevails.

Just read this story about a mother’s sacrificial love during an earthquake in China.

Rescuers at the ruins of a woman’s house found the dead body of a woman covering the body of a 3 month old boy. She had used her body to protect her baby from the falling building, sacrificing her own life to save her son’s.

In her cell phone was a text message.

” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.”

The little boy lived.. thanks to his mother’s sacrificial love.

Full story at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/787589/a_story_of_a_mothers_sacrificial_love.html?cat=9