Growing up as a kid, We sometimes doesn't understand yet some situations we were into. Adults will not tell us everything unless we got curious and ask them. They believe it's better that way than to explain to us the things that we will not fully comprehend.
Childhood days with Grandpa
Our Province Days
I am the youngest among my 3 siblings, I am a spoiled little girl of my grandpa. I usually follow him wherever he goes and I am actually his favorite grandchild (that's what they always told me), though he loves all my siblings too. He will gave me money most of the time even if I don't ask him. He'll make sure I am eating well and always ask what I want to eat.
My siblings and I were all born in Manila but we used to live in the Province when we were young, except with my Dad since he's working in Manila. My Mom, my other siblings and my Grandparents are staying with our house in the province. I studied in a Daycare Center of our Barrio, we used to walk in an unpaved muddy road.
I am feeling really old (well I'm 29 already haha) talking about these more than a two decade ago stuffs. Haha
I realized that I have a good memory that I was able to remember these things. Haha
Sometimes we walk in the pilapil (farm or ricefield embankment) or in kaniyugan (It looks like a forest, but mostly the trees our high coconut trees and with tall grasses). My grandpa will always fetch me and my sister after school. I love walking going to school and going home, but my sister hated it. She always asked Grandpa to carry her, despite of being heavy (she's a bit fat when she's a kid). He will carry us in his back alternately but sometimes my sister won't get down so I ended up walking. When I was 7 years old, My mom, me and my siblings moved back to Manila again.
Story behind the Scar
Waking up every morning, I will always look for my Grandpa. He loves drinking coffee at morning. He also a cigarette smoker, though he wouldn't smoke when we are around. An incident happened one morning. Upon seeing him sitting outside our house, I hurriedly jump on his lap not knowing he's holding a cigarette. I got a burn mark near the left knee, that later on become a scar. My Grandma scolded him alot, and I know my Grandpa feel really sorry about what happened. I can no longer remember if I cried that day or if it was painful (Maybe I did not cried that much so Grandpa won't feel bad). Now, my scar wasn't that visible because it has almost the same color of my skin tone.
"Baho" Pillow
Do you have a Baho(Smelly) Pillow? It sound disgusting, right? Haha But it's my favorite pillow. They say, most of the kids before, grew up having their favorite pillow that they don't wanna let go despite of it being old, dirty and smelly. I called my Baho Pillow as "Tanday" (from the tagalog word Dantayan or Leg pillow in english), it's a smooth brown pillow that I carry around in our house. I actually can't sleep without a pillow on my leg or feet. I have a habit of rubbing my feet on it and also in a mosquito net before sleeping.
My Baho pillow was from my Grandpa, it's his old pillow. He gave it to me when he saw that I got fond of using it. My Mom will cover Tanday with pillowcase but I'll remove it later on, she always nags me to discard Tanday but I cannot afford to throw my Baho pillow. Tanday has a sentimental value for me since it was given by Grandpa so I had a hard time to get rid of it.
The Truth
I have lots of good memories with my Grandpa. I grew up knowing that he's my real Grandpa.
When my Mom was sick more than a decade ago (I was around 14y/o). One of my Aunt told her to contact "Mom's Father" and ask for financial help. My Mom is so firm in saying no. She said, she doesn't want. I got confused, Why wouldn't my Mom wanted to contact Grandpa? She always loves seeing Grandpa and everytime my Grandpa is going back to province, she's crying.
The truth is, the Grandpa I knew as my real grandpa was not my biological Grandfather and so not my Mom's biological Father. The one that My Aunt is referring to as my Mom's Father is my Mom's biological Father. How did I know it? After the confusion I had, I asked my Mom about it and she told everything.
A/N: My Grandpa and I may not be blood related or he's not our real Grandpa, but it doesn't negate the fact that he's kindest and loving person I ever met and he's one of my forever favorite human. I'm actually thankful for having that small scar in my knee, it reminds me of my younger years. As for my baho pillow, It was discarded same with our old things as we moved out from our old home. I want to share some childhood photos but I can't find our photo album, so maybe next time.
My childhood days will never be the same if he's not around. It's saddening that he died few months after my Mom's death. I'm still studying that time and wasn't able to pay my last respect.
Lolo Wawang you will always in my heart.
I'm not an active user here. It's really hard to be active in writing when you weren't used to it, but I'm trying my best to write something worthy so thank you guys for taking time reading my articles. ❤
The relationship with your gramps proved that we don't need to be related by blood in order to have memorable bonds together.