Meet my family and find out what’s going on inside our sweet abode.
Nagulat ako nang biglang bumangon ang kuya mula sa pagtulog sa sala at dali-daling tumakbo patungo sa bukas na pintuan. Dapat kasi ay parati itong nakasara dahil baka makalabas ang bata. Matapos niyang isara ang pinto ay natigilan siya. Nakatayo lamang. May naalala. “Nakalimutan ko,” sabi niya sa akin, tila ngayon pa lang naalimpungatan. “Wala…
BATANGAS, 2018. Since I lost my nephew, I have been home more often than ever because I know my family needs me. But I hate it here. This house is a big ball of misery.
Every night I hope to see him in my dreams. It does happen sometimes. Rarely. And in those elusive dreams, he was always so distant. He wouldn’t speak or even come near me.
BALER, 2017. It’s been a month now. It’s crazy how life can turn from happy to empty in an instant. When I watched this sunset 2 months ago, I was enveloped in an air of positivity. Things were at their best —- career, relationships, family. I thought, wow, things could not get any better than…
He had not even seen the sea. Just last week I was planning a family trip to Palawan. I was excited that his first memories of the sea would be so beautiful, in El Nido, which would have been an upgrade from the plastic mini-pool that we set up at the back of our house.…
Last night while watching neighbors welcome the New Year, I remembered something: I used to sell fireworks.
I’ve been staying at my mom’s house in Batangas for the holidays. The other night, I was having a drink with neighbors on their porch when they commented how things had changed around here. The main road in our village is now flanked with 2-story concrete houses. We spent most of our childhood within flimsy…
When I was 7 years old, there was this toy boat that my mom would not buy me because we were short on cash. It wasn’t expensive at all, to be honest. But for a family who had almost nothing, even a cheap toy was regarded a luxury. I remember not getting upset about it.…
