Getting to know…

LEONIDA D. GONDA aka NANAY
Vitals: Met when I was born. She’s my daddy’s mommy = 26 years and counting
Role In My Life: Grandma Next Door – Like literally. She and my grandfather, aunt and uncle live 1 door away from us (I live in a 6-unit townhouse. We live in #4 and they live in #6). Except for when they moved here from the Philippines, I’ve never been more than a 15 minute drive away from Nanay and how lucky am I? Everyday after school, for pretty much all my pre-collegiate years, I had something waiting for me when I got home: a bowl of hot wonton soup on a cold and rainy day or some ensaymada and iced tea on a hot summer day.
Good Times: Nanay is notorious for practically force feeding her grandchildren, no matter where we are or what time it is. And my sister and I will never every get over how Nanay loves to knock on the door like crazy and ring the doorbell at 7 am during SUMMER VACATION because she has breakfast ready for us. We complain about it but we know that if it weren’t for Nanay, we all would've been malnourished little chidren. In her own words: My grandfather (Tatay) won a nativity set at a church raffle one year, and as they were all getting out of the car that night, Tatay kept reminding my Ninang and my Nanay not to forget the "nativity set" in the trunk. When they got upstairs to the front door, my grandmother was like, “What TV set?!”