I never really listened to Mama when I was growing up because I knew that she would always love me no matter what. Unlike Papa, who was the disciplinarian in the family when he was not busy earning a living for us as a travelling salesman around the country, Mama was always there for us as a homemaker for 3 boys and 1 girl, who helped her with household chores. But being the youngest among four children, I was able to get away from it all, and sang my heart out instead at a neighbor's house who had a transistor radio and song hits magazines, because I loved to sing, or watch movies whenever Papa gave me money.
But one time, Papa was not around, and Mama said that she didn't have any money to give me in order to go to the movies with my friends; so I took from her closet cabinet my large Buddha savings figurine full of coins, and banged it on the cement floor in front of her, breaking the ceramic into pieces, and scattering the coins all over the place. Mama didn't say a word, looked at me straight in the eyes, and walked away. I picked up all the coins, felt ashamed of myself for doing that to her, and stayed home afterwards.
Still, she loved me just the same, as always, especially when we moved to another province where Papa bought a furniture store, while my eldest brother and sister went to college in Manila. She even complained to one of my Grade 6 elementary school teacher-adviser when I was not included in the Honor Roll during graduation, yet my grades were actually higher than some of those on the list, and all of my teachers said that I was an excellent student.. My teacher told her that it was because I was a new student in the school. Fortunately, Sr. Marieta, our Religion teacher, gave me an award and gift during the Graduation Ceremonies in town as the Most Outstanding Student in Religion in the whole School District of Sta. Cruz, Zambales; and Mama stopped complaining.
To this day, Sr. Marieta is my favorite teacher of all time because she didn't care about my one year residency, or being new in town with my parents, and having no patronages or connections, when she chose me to be inducted by Fr. Heneghan, our Irish Columban parish priest, as president, together with fellow officers and cell leaders in different schools, of the elementary division of Student Catholic Action in the whole town, because all she cared about was if you're really a good and smart kid. I liked her because she was like a very religious Mom to me, who happened to speak the same dialect and came from the same province as Mama, taught me how to serve Jesus as an altar server during Holy Mass while learning the responses in Latin, and how to pray to Jesus while kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament, especially when I needed help from Him. And, I'm hoping to visit her again next year at the Benedictine Convent in Damortis, La Union, Philippines, where she retired.
I believe that all women have the capacity to act like mothers, whether they are nuns, single or married. And it saddens me when I read online or in the papers of women glorifying abortions, killing their babies in their wombs, or throwing them in trash cans, whether dead or alive, because based on my personal experiences, I find all women very nurturing, like the mothers that I know of, especially black women, because the first three women who helped me in getting my first job in the US, picked me up and dropped me off to church every Sunday when I was new in the country and didn't have a car, or gave me a car pool to my workplace during my first winter in America where all black women. And, they were all mothers.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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