Remembering

As we cap the celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the Weekly Question will focus on our departed loved ones. No, I am not asking you to play favorites with the question.

Who among your dearly departed hold(s) a special place in your heart?

My Answer:

I can not really say who among my dearly departed relatives hold a special place in my heart. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents are not with us anymore. I have only seen one, among all four of them, when they died. I miss them all.

My paternal grandfather, Dada used to be active in church activities that some of our relatives thought he must have missed his calling and would often tease him as “Father Porong”.

My maternal grandmother had magic touch in the kitchen. She can cook meals that one would never forget. It just that we didn’t live with them so I was not able to study how she did these things. In fact, I think nobody in the family got her special culinary talent. Except maybe my father who is now not fond of cooking anymore.

My maternal grandfather was a very hardworking man. He would wake up at the crack of dawn and go to work in the field. After lunch, he would sit on the hammock hanging below the house. He would then go back to the field with his cart, pulled by a carabao filled by root crops and vegetables.

My maternal grandmother stayed in the house and did housework. She would sometimes get herself busy playing solitaire or one would find her sitting on her rocking chair by the window facing the direction where my grandfather would walk from the field.

I miss my grandparents. I really wished I was able to stay with them more, especially my maternal grandparents. Now I know why my mother permitted me then to travel to their place by myself when I was as young as 12 years old, to be with them. To enjoy fun times with them, to learn from them, to spend time with them. Because I was young then, I enjoyed playing with my cousins rather than spending time with them.

Alas, we can’t turn back the clock and do things that we would have wanted to do with them.

To avoid regretting not doing these things, perhaps it is time to change how we treat our loved ones by spending more time with them and keeping them closer to our heart, before time runs out.