Childhood Memories pt. 2

It is common for parents to read a book such as fairy tales, or tell a story to their children before they go to sleep. But my childhood memory was different. Different in a sense that, it's not some fancy stories or fairy tales my father has told me back then. When I was on Grade 2, my father tells me two stories every night to make me sleep: about his experience during a strong typhoon when he was young, and his hilarious yet scary experience with his grandmother.

I can't remember how old he was when it happened and what typhoon it was, but my father told me that it was one of the strongest to hit our region that time. Their house was damaged and him and his siblings swam in the middle of the flood to survive, until they can't hold each other's hands anymore. They got separated. He even told me he had to hug a coconut tree just not to be swept away by the flood. Luckily, they all survived that disaster but I can say that it was one of the most traumatic experiences my father had gone through.

Another story, and this one is my favorite, is his experience with my great grandmother. She was a traditional midwife in their place. One night, she was called to give birth to a mother. My father accompanied his grandma because it was in the middle of the night, she can't come alone. There was no electricity and no transportation available that time because their house is in the hills so they had to walk. All they had was a small lamp that serves as their light in the vast darkness of the forest. It was a success, the mother finally gave birth to her beloved baby. On their way home though, they suddenly realized that they had been going through the same path repeatedly. They will walk through large trees, and cross a river again and again. They were getting nowhere and they're exhausted. They even took off their clothes and wore it inside out (it's a myth that you have to wear your clothes inside out if you are lost) because they think they are being lost. Until my father saw a ball of fire floating in the air from afar. Thinking that it was someone, and it will take them to the right path, they followed the fire. But yet again, they still walked the same path over and over again, with the trees and the same river. His grandmother then told him that they shall rest beside a tree because it's already past midnight. When morning came and they woke up, they were horrified at the sight in front of them. Because from the tree where they were lying, is their house just a few distance away.

I don't exactly remember why of all stories, he told me those. But I remember requesting it from him every night after the first time I heard it. Maybe I just really liked his stories, or him reading one to me. And I still do :)

There really is a time where we look back to our childhood memories and miss it, and the people we are with during that time. Good old days. ❤️

Thanks for reading! :)