Still Mommy

“Must not worry.”

I found some comfort from repeating this mantra to myself.   

It all started so unceremoniously. A forgotten name, a story repeated more than twice in a short span of time,  a misplaced list.  So easily and lightheartedly brushed aside and attributed as part of the aging process.

There was a debate on whether a medical explanation should be sought.  But we were all in denial. For really, what was the point.  There still is no cure for memory loss. 

And so it was for my mother.  And for us, her children.   We laughed.  We cried.  We moved on as we left matters up to time.

Then that time came and my mother herself realized she needed to face this memory eating monster head-on.   And we, her children, planned with her, stood by her and held her hand as we moved forward.

Moving forward, my mother has recently completed  the necessary medical rounds— tests and scans.

The jury is still out on her case.  In the meantime, I should take in the positive and must not worry. She is still mommy.

---xoxoxox---

While visiting with my sisters, M and V, I had the opportunity to watch our mother cook up meals for us. again  She started to apologize for her forgetfulness and hesitated. She felt she would mess things up.  But these negative thoughts vanished as everything came together so naturally.  A chopping board, a sharp knife, a good pan and her confidence was back. 

She outdid herself with her Sotanghon Pancit (recipe here) , Chicken Asado (recipe here) and Pork Sinigang (recipe here).   She also did a green peppers and beans with ground beef dish.  This was something new and delicious for me. I quickly took notes so I won't forget.  And thought it worth passing on to you.

Mom’s Sauted Green Peppers and Beans with Ground Beef

1/2 k ground beef
3 strips of bacon, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, cored and sliced into strips
A handful of green beans (about a cup), string removed and chopped diagonally
Splash of worchestershire, perrins, or soy sauce—whatever you have on hand
Salt and pepper

Place the bacon in a pan and render the oil.  Remove the bacon and set aside. In the bacon oil, saute the garlic and onions then add the beef.  When beef is done, return the bacon and throw in the peppers and beans.  Stir quickly and season with seasoning sauce, salt and pepper.  Remember: Do not overcook or your veggies will be mushy.

Goes very well with steamed rice.

Rainy Days are for…

Weeding out never-to-be used again stuff that has outlived its usefulness from closets, cabinets, drawers, bookshelves and every hoarder’s hiding places in the house.

Lying down to nap

Go through the stack of mail— bank notices, subdivision flyers, bills--  that has piled up over the last month

Lying down to flip through a food magazine

Staring out of the window to see how flooded my garden is.

 

Lying down to watch cable teevee: Anthony Bordain eating his way through L.A., New York, Singapore, Bangkok…..

Going through my music CDs and occasionally join in the singing….. “Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain”….

Positive Confessions

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

It started like any other mentoring Sunday.  The parish scholars, public elementary and high school students, were starting to come into the chapel to once more meet up with their assigned mentors.  The program that morning was to center around the scholars’ need to set goals on how to better their lives.  In a prior meeting, it was agreed that it would be good to have an older scholar share with the rest of the kids her story of what and how she was doing to achieve her dreams. 

So why were tears slowly streaming down my face as I listened to Z, a shy parish college scholar tell her story? 

Forever Daughters, Forever Sisters

The signs were there. The yelping of the dogs as the car parked into the garage. The welcome smiles of our loyal house helpers as we surrendered our bags to them. The strong smell of tsokolate.  Slippers and house dusters laid out and ready.

Mail Bonding

I got another one a week ago.  It was a postcard with a picture of a road sign that read, “Kangaroos Next 50km”.

Work Place Revisited

I was in my old working grounds twice this week to run errands. 

The first time I ventured out, I left right after lunch and took the MRT (train).  That took a quick and comfortable 40 minutes. Hardly any queues at the ticket window and plenty of room inside the train.  Maybe if it was this easy all the time, I would have readily accepted the invitations of my office mates to come visit for lunch or dinner. But the sudden downpour as I exited the terminal made me rethink my being out so far away from home. 

The second time, I hitched an early morning ride with a neighbor and we spent a little over two hours catching up on the latest happenings in our lives before she finally dropped me off at my destination.  To say that the traffic was terrible is an understatement.  It truly is a wonder how I managed all those long and tiring commute times in the thirty years of work in that fabled financial district.  Love of work? Friends at work? Pay at work?  A combination?  It is a wonder indeed.

Priceless

I learned from my daughter that her Serbian dorm mate receives regular mailed packages of spices from her mother to keep homesickness at bay. What a swell idea!  So I thought I’d do the same by mailing out an item that was uniquely from home. 

After much thought on what exactly could that item be, keeping in mind postal regulations, my daughter asked if I could mail her some tablea (local unsweetened chocolate tablets).   

slightly bigger and thicker than a P5 coin

Always on a Sunday

Sundays at our house means a hearty lunch—sometimes the main course can take a while to make and sometimes the dish is a family tradition.  But always special. 

And I was in trouble.  The bananas I bought at the supermarket were not ripe enough to put into the Pochero- a ginger-flavored soup made up of beef shank, saba bananas, potatoes, cabbage or pechay tagalog.   More often than not, Pochero is the main dish for our Sunday lunches. No bananas. No can do.

I did not relish the effort of going out early in the morning for one ingredient.  But this was just the reason I needed to visit one of the Sunday markets in the City.  The market used to be located inside the Lung Center of the Philippines compound but had since relocated about two years ago to a bigger location closer to the main thoroughfare—EDSA. 

  

Wild (Garden) No More

He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.' Job 37:6



The weatherman said that the interment heavy rains does not mean summer is officially over. Apparently there are conditions that need to be met before it can be declared that the rainy season is upon us.

Daddy Cool

A postcard with a picture of the famous Stonehenge ( giant rocks arranged in a circle in the UK) arrived in the mail three days ago. 

It was my daughter’s Father’s Day greeting for my hubby.  “You rock!”, she scribbled on the back of the picture. 

I smiled at her attempt to capture in just two words what her dad is to her.  This in turn lead me to think about my own dad.  What sort of a father was he and what he meant to me.

My father has been gone for more than 30 years and I go back to that time when he was a very big part of my life.