Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Childhood Memories

I thought I will share some of my childhood memories here. The past typhoon that hit the country reminded me of our life when I was a child. I came from a poor family and I told my hubby that whenever there was a typhoon in my childhood days, my father always put some bamboo braces to our small house made of bamboos and nipa leaves to protect it from the strong typhoon. My parents will not sleep the whole night and kept monitoring the typhoon in case our house will be blown away. It was a good thing that our small and humble house endured those past calamities but there were times also that part of the roof was blown away and my father was the one who restored it.

My father was a very good carpenter and that was his occupation and source of income. He can make cabinets, doors, window and door jambs, beds, tables and other carpentry works. My mother was a plain housewife who took care of me and my 3 siblings. I am the oldest in the family, Violy was next, then my 2 brothers Celso and Albin. We lived a simple life, no luxuries and it was only during Christmas that my parents bought us some new clothes and toys. I always told my nephews that they were so blessed because they have all the luxuries that we didn't have when we were kids. They have all the modern toys, whereas when we were kids we made some improvised toys because our parents can't afford to buy us new toys. But I remember we were happy and contented with what we had. We never missed a meal though most of the time we only had coffee made of rice and some fish and vegetables. Our family was complete and we were happy and contented being together. My siblings and I never got separated from each other that's why we had that bonding and close relationship with each other. Those were the days, the good old days. Now my parents and my li'l sis were gone. Also my grandma and my aunt were gone. It made me so sad remembering them because I miss them so much. All I have are their memories and I will always hold on to that...

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Unforgettable September

There are lots of things I remember that happened in the month of September. Some are happy memories, some are not. Let me start with the not so happy memories. It was September 1978 when my grandpa in my mother side passed away. He was just buried in the morning and some of our relatives from other province were still in the house after the funeral. Then in the afternoon, my mom who was bedridden due to breast cancer passed away. I was only 16 then, my sis Violy was 14, Celso was 12 and Albin was 10. It wasn't easy to lose our mom at our young age. Within that month, we lost 2 of our loved ones. Last month, September 27th, 32 years after my grandpa and my mom passed away, my li'l sister Violy passed away. That was not easy I tell you. My sister and I were very close to each other and it's very hard to accept that she's gone.

There were also happy memories that happened in the month of September. My most unforgettable day that happened in my life is when hubby and I tied the knot on September 11, 2002. It was my most special day because I waited for 40 years before I found the man of my dreams and marched down the isle to marry him. Also, it was in the month of September when I got my US visa and flew to the US on the same month, September 2003. My late li'l sister's birthday falls on September 23rd so we always had a celebration every year and the last one was last month, 4 days before she passed away. The month of September brings back sad and happy memories...