I am going to tell you a bit about my Grandmother: 7th of 11

Shown here in the middle, donning a cream top and a very stylish pants, just being fab under a banana tree.

Funny that as I try to put together particular post, I found myself at lost for words or rather lacking of anything substantial to say about her. I think I do not know her very well, not as well as I thought I did. Ngunit kailangang magsulat pa, kaya naman pagdamutan nawa ang iilang bagay na alam ko tungkol sa kanya. 

This is my paternal grandmother, or should I use was? Right. This was my paternal grandmother. She was named Corazon, fondly referred as Cora by friends but to me she is "Lola". I think I got my temper from her, or that my dad got his temper from her and I from him, we were very similar you know. She was married at a young age and she outlived her husband of whom she had 3 children, 2 boys and a girl. Some years after the death of her husband, she had another child with a man I never got to know, it was a boy and that boy grew up to be my father. Her family originated in Negros Occidental and as she was left widowed and with a new baby, the province experienced one of its greatest decline. Farmlands and properties were sold  and some prominent families left the countryside to move to the capitol for better opportunities while the rest of the people are left there without sources of income and food. I heard that many people died during that time, from hunger and sickness, desperate days were upon them. To be able to feed her family, she sent her children to a local orphanage so that they could have a place to stay and an opportunity to study while she worked as a maid in a nearby town. 

The years in the orphanage were hard. The institution was funded with donations from people from other countries and each children have an assigned foster parents that sends money for their schooling. The nuns and the administration of this orphanage was said to keep the money all for their selves and instead put the children through hard labor and made them eat gruel 3 times a day, Anecdotes of tending to the orphanage's vegetable and fruit gardens and producing jams were aplenty when I was younger. As children this living condition is unacceptable, despite the provided food and education and so the young children of Cora left the orphanage one by one. The older boys went to Manila to work, their two younger siblings were left behind because they still have to go home on the weekends to see their own grandmother, Lola Puti.  As an opportunity came, the girl was able to get hold of her foster parents information and wrote to them, they agreed to meet her in Cebu. Not long after she left the orphanage too to meet them and to seek employment in the province as well. My father was left there all by himself, he was 13. My grandmother was still working in Bacolod then, sending money to her own mother whenever she can. My father had to endure working and staying in the orphanage for another 4 years and not long after he left when his grandmother fell ill. He went to join his brothers in Manila when Lola Puti died, they were soon reunited with their mother, estranged from each other. 

The details after their move to Manila was murky. I just know that my grandmother continued seeking employment wherever she may get it and that her children tried to help her until both of her oldest sons got married. Her only daughter was employed in a hotel in Cebu and was sending money to them. She surprised them with news of wanting to get married with a Japanese penpal a guest in the hotel introduced her to. I'm not sure if there were any opposition to their union but eventually they got married. 

My grandmother never stopped working, not until her daughter told her to. She worked for herself and her family as much as she can. She never asked for anything in return. She worked and she loved as much as she could.

I heard that she didn't really like my mother but as she saw that my father transforms whenever she is around she wasn't able to stop them, add to that my unplanned conception. I was also told that she hid my father somewhere in the north just to stop them from being together, she was difficult like that. She was very critical of people and their intentions. During that time till I was old enough to understand, I learned that she loved my father best. Parents aren't supposed to play favorites but it can't be helped, it is just the way it is. She struggled for him and defended him, her overflowing love for managed to make its way to us, his children. I felt that my lola was the toughest woman alive and that nothing can beat her. Well, childish notions like that are not bound to last. 

So this is my grandmother. She is the instrument the Lord used so that I and my brothers got to know and accept Christ in our hearts. My first prayer and bible verse were all uttered because of her encouragements. I shall not forget her impalpable courage and strength during her long fight with cancer. She set the example that whatever your family may do, they are still your family. All you can do is love them and love them more. 

This is the first and last family picture that we had together in Church. Roughly 2 months after this picture was taken, she went home to be with the Lord; all her pains and struggles over. I still miss her. It's her birthday today, she would have been 84 years old and I bet that if she is around now, she'll be as sharp as ever. I know that she is enjoying glory with our Savior and I look forward to our reunion someday. 

'La, miss na kita. Marami na rin po akong mga "apo". Don't worry, nagpapakabait po si Sabad nyo. 

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I am not sure with some of the details of this narrative because we don't really discuss these things in family dinners. Most of them I heard in whispers and during drunken exchanges when I was younger, I compiled them and made a timeline of my own. It's human nature to want to make sense of a person's origin, even though most of the time the history you come up with for yourself is a bit skethcy and borders the delusional. I hope you'll forgive D for this one.

P.P.S: The crazy sched is making it difficult to post the remaining days of this series, be not worried, they are on their way to internet immortality, just please be patient with me. Woop! Woop!