Inang, Paalam.
May 6, 2016. In a gloomy, rushing evening. On Wednesday evening, I said goodbye to a woman who’s seen me grow up for the 22 years of my life. In fact I didn’t really “say goodbye”. She left this physical world in the wee hours of her birthday, when I was at the office grinding my laptop away. Shocked and unprepared. I can blame myself for not having spent more time with her, but I won’t. Inang was a proud woman. I can see that always every time I go to her bound. I can see that through her eyes, tears uncontrollably rolling down her face, always, in all my stories, happy or sad, sensical or not. She had been around for much of my life so far, that it seemed an unspoken promise that she would be around forever- a foolish thought that I had, that I could keep her for long. It is such times that I ought to have been reminding myself that loved bits and pieces will surely leave us, or are already leaving. Whatever life has granted us, it is really ...