MAMANG & NANAY

I just read Rex's entry about his grandmother and it just so happens that it was my grandmother's birthday yesterday (my mom's mom). Unfortunately she's all the way in the Philippines so I greeted her the way any redblooded Filipino would...I texted my aunts and my cousins to tell her HAPPY BIRTHDAY for me.

I left the Philippines when I was only 4 years old and didn't go back for a visit until I was 23. In the 19 years that I was gone, Mamang went from the bubbly able-bodied lady that I left in 1982 to a woman overcoming a stroke some years before. She was a lot skinnier than I remembered her and the stroke left her speech somewhat compromised so she hardly talks. Trying to talk to her on the phone sometimes makes me want to cry cuz I just feel bad, like as the eldest granddaughter, I should be home in the Philippines walking with her to the market, or taking her to mass or watching TV with her like Papang, God rest his soul, used to. Instead I'm here, living a life that I'm so grateful for, but wishing she could experience the same.
I hope she knows how much I think of her.

And then there's my Nanay, my dad's mom, who lives a door away from me. Nanay's hilarious! She swears we starve if she's not the one feeding us! My sister and I used to hate it when we were on vacation and Nanay would ring the doorbell like crazy at 7:00 am to tell us to eat breakfast. After some coaxing, we're sitting at the counter eating the spam, eggs and fried rice she brought over cuz we can't sleep anymore. But that's Nanay. She lives for her children and grandchildren...and her TFC. She has seriously babysat all the children in our family (and some other people's families) because she's so excellent at taking care of everyone.

Simple lives, our grandmothers lead. Quiet and often subdued, they don't always appear to be doing or thinking much. But what would our lives be without them, the matriarchs of our society? Life would surely be in disarray.