A very close friend once told me: “Your mother talks non-stop like a radio. But unlike the radio, she cannot be turned OFF” heheheh . . .
Yup. That’s Nanay. She could talk straight for 24 hours and I am NOT exaggerating. We were in Pampanga visiting the wake of her relative. The people there took turns talking to her! Even when she was eating, she was talking continuously. She only took a break when she used the bathroom.
Her favorite story at home was when she topped the Midwifery Board Exam with a grade of 99%. She would tell this story over and over again but we didn’t mind. We responded as if we were hearing it for the first time.
When Nanay stopped talking, we knew something was terribly wrong but we just pacified ourselves that she probably got tired of talking already.
She no longer tell stories now but mumbles to herself “ENOUGH, ENOUGH, ENOUGH”.
This could stem from the fact that when people ask her before the secret of her physical well-being, she would answer “enough food, enough exercise, enough rest, enough sleep, enough stress, and enough money to last you a lifetime.”
When Nanay washes her hands she would sing “ang lahat, tatalikdan ko”. This is the last verse of “Paghahandog Ng Sarili”, the song we normally sing during the Offertory in the Holy Mass. She also sings this when she walks inside the house or when she’s just sitting down and when she’s taking a bath.
At night when I moisturize her face, I let her massage her neck so she could exercise her hands. She would do so while counting in hundreds. For this I have no idea why. I guess in her mind, she is probably counting her money!
