My Parents, Honorary Sister, And Parents In Law

My parents are both dead now...how I miss them so much. Our family wasn't rich. My father was a tailor and sent Mama to college after they got married and eventually Mama got an education degree. She used to teached in Harvadian Colleges in Annex, Ozamis City. Mama would be teaching in Ozamis while the rest of the family remained in Lapu-Lapu. I was around 3 or 4 years old and I remember that whenever Mama would come home from teaching, our youngest, who's a year younger than me would cry whenever Mama would try to picked him up (sort of he viewed Mama as stranger). Eventually our whole family moved to Ozamis so that the family would all be together. We stayed in Ozamis for a couple of years and we all came back to our home in Lapu-Lapu for good. My father was big in education. My older brother joined the Air Force after he graduated college, he got married and after I finished high school, he sent me to college (Most Filipinos are like this, helping parents and siblings even after they got married) . The second brother joined the Air Force as well. Eventually our eldest became an attorney after going back to school having his children already. When I finished college and got a job at Fairchild, I've helped my parents  to have my younger brother's college education in turn.

I always longed for a sister as I'm the only girl in the family. When I was in high school (first year, I think), Janet (cousin's daughter) came to our family and lived with us on and off. We always consider her as part of the family. A sister at last! Janet was my chaperone when hugbun came to the Philippines.

A couple of weeks after I arrived in Maryland, we went to upstate New York to spend Christmas with my hugbun's family. I felt so comfortable with my hugbun's family as they're all so accomodating and good people. Before my arrival, Mom made a winter coat drive for me...so that I would be warm and toasty :)! On March the next year, my father in law died. He was already ill and blind when I first meet him. My hugbun has only one married sibling, a brother, who also live in New York. The plan would have been that both of my parents in law will live with us in Maryland. With Dad's death, only Mom was able to live with us since 1994.