Kuya and I had a chat about Lola today. I told him I visited her last Saturday and talked about him. She’s so worried about Kuya ‘s situation and even thought he might run out of money. I told this to Kuya and I think he got emotional there for a while. Hehe. He shared that every time he feels down, she talks to Lola and it always made him feel better. We then realized how good Lola is in giving words of encouragement and on not giving up.

We remembered how she would slightly hit us with her meter stick everytime we, her makulit grandchildren, imitate the boom shigi shigi waa shigi shigi oooowa thingie of Shaider where Kuya would pretend to be the ‘Alah’ and we’d be following him with our arms raised and waving as if praising ‘Alah’. Hahaha

I remember when I was on night shift, I would go straight to Lola’s house during Saturday mornings and she’d cook a sunny side up egg and have her helper buy me bread from Aling Puring. Lola makes the perfect sunny side up in the whole wide world! As in!

We also thought about the meriendas Lola bought us then: ogoy ogoy from Mitz’ na sinasawsaw sa juice or milo, binatog from manong binatog, bitso from batang mambibitso. And we’ll never forget her famous ulam, ginisang pechay and kamote cut in 1cm by 1cm pieces. It doesn’t actually tastes good but we eventually learned to eat it. Haha.

I won’t forget how she told me not to allow anyone to touch my hand. Hahaha. She’s not strict though. Just being a conservative Filipina. (Even though she got married at 18, wahahaha, oh well, uso naman yun dati.)

Sweetness doesn’t come naturally from her. She’s actually mataray most of the time. When she’s concerned with any of her relatives, she says it in a taray tone. I don’t know how she does it, but she still always makes us feel loved. Lola turned 78 this October. I hope that she will always be happy and worry free. Angabyu Ngonga Ngows!