By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
As of writing this in a cold Friday morning, another one in the family has managed to graduate from university. Like a typical Filipino family, the celebrations would be coming non-stop, with the first one already having concluded yesterday. And in this wave of unstoppable eating and celebrations, you can only ride the wave and join in the bandwagon. With a thick skin and a hint of audacity, you can even celebrate with enough zeal to act as if you were the one who wore the toga.
Bit by bit, the group of children in the pictures that our parents keep inside their houses resemble us less and less. The crooked teeth and the ugly haircuts of before are gone. Our size is no longer comparable to our child-like counterparts and to recreate the scenes when we were carried by our parents in their laps in the present would only result in a laughable moment. Gone are the children in the photos, but thankfully they are replaced by ones with their older and more mature versions. Instead of wearing shirts with all sorts of stains all over, the pictures hung up now are evidences of triumph over university.
All this would not have been made possible without the help of so many people. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and these recent, capable-looking graduates truly needed them in order to reach this point. Different generations within the family had their parts in raising us, different aunts, uncles, and even distant family members played a part. But none can doubt the influence of the former “matriarch” of the family.
Across many pictures, the scenes depict small and funny-looking children as they transform into more decent-looking individuals, but the common element has always been the old lady. Decades of stories were stored within those pictures, and through decades she had always been there.
Since she is not with us now, there is a big piece missing in the pictures we put up now.
In time, all of her little wards from before would go on down their own paths. Some will find their calling from beyond home. Some will go abroad, or perhaps try their luck in different parts of the country, but all of us will eventually leave home.
Wherever we may end up in the future, the same grandma and the many people who had a part in building up our present selves will end up becoming a source of strength when we may need it. Though she may be missing from our pictures now, when we all come together and show the different parts we inherited from her, there she can be found again.
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