My older sister just left for Bicol today, having just arrived last Sept. 13 morning. She came over to celebrate the 1st birthday of her grandson and son last Saturday and to attend to some other personal concerns. The last time she came over was last March, or was it December last year? I’ve been looking forward to her visit as I would have somebody to go shopping with at a suburban bargain clothes center, or accompany me to buy some furnitures, that we would be able to attend a prayer meeting of a famous preacher, or that we would bond with another sister and go out of town, that we would go for colonoscopy together, etc. But it was not to be. She was still in a hurry to go back to help tend to their store. It used to be that her husband would be left alone without a reliever while she is away. She said that when her daughter-in-law moves to Bicol to help them, she wouldn’t need to hurry home. But this time her husband has just undergone angioplasty and is still feeling woozy.
It was disappointing to wait for her for months and not be able to do the things we planned to do. We talk over the phone every day. With her hip and knee pain getting worse, she said she’d probably not be able to take the long trip to MetroManila anymore.
With some of my friends in the community passing or moving away, and my nephews abroad, the more I long for the company of my sisters. Although my niece and family lives nearby, we don’t get along really well. But like the lyrics of an old song I just have to “love the one I’m with” .
