Eight months ago, I went home to Basco in grief to bury my 101-year old great grandmother Lola Laget. Had she lived today, she would have been the oldest person alive in my province. I'm not really sure if that's an accomplishment anyone would like to beat, but it sure is something.
Let me talk about my Lola Laget and me today on her birthday, my little way of paying tribute to one life lived.
When every elderly person is identified with folly and disease, my Lola Laget has remained a delightful antithesis. Up to the time she died, she never failed to surprise us with her faultless memory, impeccable taste, and pure love for life. You will soon see why.
I grew up in the province. Deep in my heart, I am probinsiyano. And because the place where I came from is nearer Taiwan than mainland Luzon, that made it more different and interesting. You grew up probably with Star Wars and Voltes V and a bit of Tom and Jerry on the side. I grew up with war stories. But these are not of the kind that scares and disheartens people. These are the stories that inspire and keep you in awe long after they have been told.
Kitchen and veranda
My fondest memories as a kid mostly happened inside the kitchen or the veranda. I spent many nights as a kid sitting by my Lola's bed or in the kitchen where she prepared dinner. Once in a while, she would ask me about school or my cousins. But most of the time she would relate her life story, each time with so much passion you'd think it was better off made into a movie.
That morning of December 8 in 1941, she says, started gloomy. They just came from church when people started to notice countless ships by the bay. It was the first time they have ever seen fleet of ships in their life, and they wanted to know what was happening. And since they were all good-natured and hospitable people, they rushed to the shore to meet them. Minutes later, the first bomb was fired. My lola lost no time. She quickly got everyone in the family to travel on foot six kilometers to the next town, up in a farm where they thought they'd be hard to find.
And so they were there, her six children including my grandfather who was her eldest. That farm served as their home for the years that came until the war ended. That farm was where my mother was born two years later.
She fondly recalls, she was fortunate to have been born into a landed family. She rode horses when she was young to help out shepherding cattle by the hundreds. She remembers enjoying admiration of many young men as well as women. This wasn't hard to believe. She had long hair, high-bridged nose, and fair skin. She soon met my great grandfather who was a pure Spanish. Because he belonged to the family of the first Spanish government head in my province, they were wealthy and had so much influence.
But they had an unhappy marriage. Stories I gathered disclosed that it was only my great grandmother who remained devoted to the end while my great grandfather gambled a lot, sired children from different women, and failed to pay taxes. And so, little by little, the landholdings dwindled down to the last prized possession. If Cinderella had the rags to riches story, Lola Laget had the exact opposite.
She chose to be happy
But she was not bitter. She then began working in the field to raise her children and keep the family together. Many times I have heard it said, if our family remains intact to this day, Lola Laget should be credited for it. No one ever heard her cry, or worse, blame anyone, during those times. When every one else were chiding her husband, she was never tempted to say anything hurtful. I'm sure she had sleepless nights and it was likely her pillows were drenched in tears too. But, for her, it was a different story every day, each morning.
This was how we grew up. It may not be your idea of perfect childhood, it may completely be irrelevant today. But all of us have nurtured a close relationship with Lola Laget.
For instance, long before I ever started working, there was an unspoken tradition in the family. The moment you start earning, you don't get to hold and enjoy your first paycheck. As our modest way of appreciating what she has done for the family, everyone's first paycheck is wholeheartedly given to her. All of it. It is a sweet vindication for her and for most mothers, that life's adversities do not cripple you.
<to be continued>
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