Day 1 of 2023

Thursday, 12 January 2023

Miss me? I hope you did. I have been out of circulation for quite some time now. In fact, when I checked my read.cash account, my last posting was in April 23, 2022.

How does everyone spend their New Year?

Me and my children always planned ahead on what to prepare and cook for New Year’s eve celebration.  It has been a tradition in our family to have some delicious dish on the table. Desserts has to be served too to start the year with something sweet.

As early as December 25, we already list down the menus that we are going to serve. We list down the ingredients that needs to be bought beforehand. We also check the pantry for whatever ingredients on hand and delete them out on our shopping list.

And right on time, everything is bought and ready for cooking. On the evening of December 30, I marinated the pork belly that I planned on cooking into Hamonado. An overnight marinate with pineapple juice, soy sauce and ground pepper will surely make it more tasty.

Early on December 31, I went down early to prepare the fruit salad. I want to make it early so that it will have time to cool as it is delicious when served ice cold.

When I went down that day, my mom was at her usual place near the door. She was having her breakfast. She is spoon fed by our house help, Angie, as she is too weak to hold the spoon for a long time. After she had her breakfast, Angie came to the kitchen to help me prepare the salad. In the middle of all the preparation, we heard a loud cough from my mom so Angie hurried up to her side to clean up any phlegm that might have been discharged by my mom. A few minutes later, she called me and said that something is not right with my mom. I ran to my mom’s side and asked her if she is okay.

She then faced me with a big smile on her face and asked me who am I. We usually joked our answer with her every time she asked that question. She has Alzheimer’s disease and usually forget our names. So I told her my name and jokingly said not to forget my name and to that she gave a very big smile.

I sat down beside her and wipe out the saliva that has run out of her mouth. I asked her to open her mouth so that I can remove the sticky saliva but she won’t budge. Then I saw that her eyes were too hazy. I thought that my mom will be leaving us soon so I called all my brothers and sister to come to the house. We were in conference call, I told them that we need to bring mom to the hospital but I think that she will not last long so I preferred to call a priest for her last sacrament, the anointing of the sick.

As she keeps on slipping on her wheelchair, Angie and I carried her to her bed and there she made a very deep breath, three times and finally slept forever.

At that moment, time stand still. We just stared at her and didn’t know what to do. We were able to move when the priest arrived and gave her the last sacrament.

All our plans for the new year were cancelled. There were a lot to take care about. Glad that my brothers, sister and sister-in-law were there to help.

So, on the first day of 2023, we spent our day with mom in a coffin.

Though it was a sad time but my brothers, sister and I are happy as our mom did not suffer pain but instead was happy on her last moment on earth.

I don’t ask anything from you, my readers, but this time, I hope you can say a prayer or two for my mom.

God bless us all.

Thank you for dropping by my friends.