Yes, my middle name is Philomena!

This is a very funny, and yes, very true story. My older sister tells me this story and it makes me laugh every time.

My mom and dad walked into their kitchen back in 1966, holding hands, and my 2 sisters and brother were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. My parents told them they were expecting another child (me!)………..my oldest sister (Jan) was 15 , my brother (Joe) was 13, and my other sister (Yvonne) was 5. Well, Jan (whose mouth dropped open and some of the cereal she was eating fell out) thought to herself, ‘eeeuuuwww, what are you kidding me? I’ll be in a nursing home by the time this one grows up’, my brother, well, I’m not sure what he was thinking (I may ask him one day), and my other sister who was 5, well, she probably didn’t understand what was going on.

Fast forward 9 months…………..

Jan gets a phone call from my dad………...’Gina Ann is here’……….and tells the details.

Jan thinks, ‘that’s a nice name, Gina Ann, yeah, that’s nice’.

Five minutes later………….

Jan picks up the phone…………dad on the line……he says, ‘change of plans, it’s now Gina Philomena, not Gina Ann’.

Jan says, ‘Why did you change the name?’ thinking to herself, (why the hell did you do that to that poor girl………..Gina Philomena, I mean come on!!!)

Dad answers, ‘well, your mother got sentimental and wanted to name her after your Grandmother’, (my father’s mother – still living at the time).

I have no clue what my brother thought………….I may ask him about this as well. Yvonne, being 5, didn’t really care……(at this age she had no clue what it meant to have a name that rhymes).

Well, I have to admit………….for 43 years I hated that name. I never used it and cringed every time I did have to use it like for my social security card and wedding license. I did however like the nicknames I had growing up (and still have) that my family calls me sometimes…………

Joe and Yvonne sometimes call me ‘philly’ and my mom calls me gina mina……………my sister Jan though never had a nickname for me…….I think she is still traumatized from that second phone call on January 11th, 1967…………..traumatized by what I was going to go through having a name that rhymed, and a strange name at that………

Well let me tell you, not many people knew my middle name………..only a very select few………..and they had to swear on the grave of……..whoever, that they would never, ever tell a soul………………

So after 43 years, I’ve come to like that name…………….and as soon as I softened up to this – to liking this name………..I felt a connection to my grandmother, who I never knew.

She died when I was 3 or 4, I think……..I remember short visions in my mind of visiting her…………..but I did not know her in her physical form. But now I feel a connection to her.………….I guess it’s more of an energetic, spiritual kind of connection………..but it’s kind of cool I have to admit.

Now I truly know why I was given her name as my middle name……….to have this connection……………..and it only took me 43 years to come to terms with the name, lol……………….sometimes it seems like I feel her energy around me when I meditate……….I know it sounds strange, but it’s what I feel. Sometimes she pops into my mind during some meditations……….out of the blue……….and her energy seems to be near me………….

So thanks Mom for getting all sentimental and giving me that name…………….I do not cringe anymore, but am now empowered by it……. .

And you know what else I just found out………….Philomena is from Greek origin and means, ‘powerful love’……….(my grandmother spelled her name Filomena which is of Italian origin and means, ‘beloved’…………my  mom meant to spell it the same way, but obviously she didn’t, and I’m glad she didn’t…….because I kinda like ‘powerful love’………………pretty cool heh?!!!

Oh yeah………and all of you who had to swear not to ever tell a soul what my middle name is……..well, you’re obviously off the hook now………..tell anyone you’d like, .

Have you ever had this type of thing happen to you? Have you ever hated something, then in time realize something else? Any kind of shift take place for you? Would love to hear and have some of you join in on the conversation………….

Inhale~Enjoy~Exhale,

Gina

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