To be young, two, and free….
This is the current phrase in my mind as I sit outside watching my children get wet with a sprinkler. They’re babbling to each other, communicating in a language only them can understand. I watch in contemplation wondering how I was when I was young, two (years old), and free from all the world’s worries.
Like them, I was about to be a big sister at 25 months old. My Mom was infanticipating and my sister Stephanie exactly a month after my second birthday.
I may have been oblivious to the fact that I would be big sister soon and the only thing I had in mind was how to wrap my grandmother around my fingers so I can get more chocolates the next time she buys them from that store just outside the Mandaue City Public Market.
Yes, I was the favorite apo (grandchild); spoiled, pampered, loved. I pretty much got everything and my cousins were mere subordinates in the field of Grandma love. That stretched on until college. When I ran out of allowance, all I had to do was take a jeepney, a public utility vehicle in the Philippines, to my grandparents’ seafood stall at the public market. I call my grandmother, Lola. Her name is Patricia. She was often called Lola Patring by my cousins but in college, I started referring to her as Lola Patty.
When Lola Patty saw me in her stall, she knew immediately I was in food trouble. She’ll tell me to go straight to Joseph’s carinderia and eat as much as I can. Pork humba was my favorite dish paired with unlimited servings of rice and Sprite (yep, the carbonated drink). By the time I’m done eating, I’ll be back in her stall and three packs of goodies would be ready. One pack contained apples and mangoes; a second pack was filled with snackables including caycay (a sticky-crispy, syrup-glazed biscuit coated with crushed peanuts); and the third pack usually had some clothes, pairs of earrings, and other accessories which she think I may like. I would go back to my boarding house with my cupboard replenished.
I’ve been daydreaming about those times in the past days. Those times when all I need to do was to study and do well on school (which I did). The Grandma pampering stopped when I was 19. It was the summer before I entered my final year in the university. Lola Patty died and it was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life.
It’s been 10 years since she passed on but I can still remember how she smelled, how she smiled, how she collected every single newspaper article that was published with my byline on it.
My reminiscing was cut short when I heard Antoinette squeal. They’re having too much fun. Jeff told me our little girl was already shivering as Nicholas, the scientist, was figuring out how the sprinkler works.
My Grandma would have love this sight. The only set of twins – a boy and a girl – in the immediate family. If she was still alive, I bet my stash of chocolates hidden somewhere for post pregnancy indulgence that she will still buy me meals, apples, mangoes, clothes, and earrings. She would love to hear me crave for caycay and tell her dear friend from the market to reserve 10 packages for me.
I miss you, Lola Patty…
I’m pretty sure heaven is benefiting from your sweetness…
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T30WC or The 30-minute Writing Challenge is a writing exercise born out of this blogger’s need to maintain a habit of writing. Subjects of each writing challenge is just about anything but should ONLY be written within 30 minutes.
