Friday, August 12, 2011

Ang Makulay na Daigdig ni Nora (My Colorful Life: Part 1)

My journey through life has never been "normal".  Weird to some, funny to others.  Yes, I had my share of ups and downs but everything I went through only made me stronger.  Join me down memory lane as I recall the "weird" stuff about me.  Laugh and cry with me as I open the pages of my colorful life story.

1.  My mother has 9 siblings and my father has 7 but could someone please tell me why I'm  the only biological child?

2.  Tatay is a native of Cavite and my mother a pure bloodied Kapampangan but their only daughter is an Ilongga!   Their paths unexpectedly crossed in Marbel, South Cotabato where I was eventually born.

3.  Nanay delivered the youngest child of her mother, being the Rural Health Midwife of Marbel during that time.  I thought I could enlist her in the Guinness Book of Records as the only woman who delivered  both the baby of her mother and the baby of her daughter but unfortunately, I had to be under Caesarian Section so my plan didn't materialize.  Sayang!

4.  In my father's side, my grandfather died at age 96 and after 1 week, my grandmother followed. She was 98.  In their 77 years of marriage, not once did they live apart from each other. They used to eat together in 1 huge plate.

5.  In my mother's side, her grandmother passed away at the very young age of 103.  Maybe because she was a meat lover to the very end, begging for pork adobo before she finally left.  I could still vividly remember her last moment on her death bed.  Nanay was whispering in her ear that she shouldn't worry about the family she's leaving behind.  But this really made me laugh:  "Ima, kung sinusundo ka na nina Apo, etc., sumama ka na para masaya na kayo lahat sa langit."  (Grandma, if you're being fetched by your husband and relatives, why don't you go with them so all of you will be happy together in heaven?)  My great grandmother gently nodded her head, heaved a sigh of relief, and she was gone.

To be continued . . .