I Didn't Know Mom Kept a Lot of My Childhood Things

We've been working on decluttering Mom's home the past few weeks. The team breezed through the common areas of the house, but things slowed down when they got to Mom's room. I was told that Mom really had a lot of knick-knacks. 

I went over to inspect the sorted boxes and was surprised to see a lot of things from my childhood. She kept all my piggy banks, my Hello Kitty mirror and comb set, my first sewing kit, my Millionaire's Game play money etc. I had thought they were long gone already. She had been nagging me to get my piggy banks since I got home. I didn't because my house was a huge mess. I made space for it already, so I got some of it. I know the rest she kept in a cabinet we haven't opened yet. 

Told my siblings I found our inheritance, LOL. 

What also surprised me was seeing the table by her bedside with my first communion photos. It wasn't there the last time I visited her at home, so she must have put it there recently. She must have been praying hard for me since I was getting sick a lot before she passed away. 

I've also started going through the papers she left behind. A lot are Dad's stuff. My Mom was really good at organizing things especially paperwork. All I need to do for now is change the envelopes they're stored in. Most of the papers are properly labelled and I'll find time to scan them. The photos though will be a huge monster to tackle since Mom loved to frame photos. Will hopefully be able to save them. And that's a different scanning project, let's see if my old HP printer will hold up, haha. 

I think Mom hung on to my things because I lost a lot during typhoon Ondoy. It broke my heart because most of the things I lost were items I bought with my hard earned money. My heart was heavy on the way to my childhood home. I didn't really want to see my Mom's things sorted in boxes, especially the ones in her room. My sadness though turned to joy when I saw how Mom painstakingly preserved my things. She'd been wanting to give some to me the past few years. I didn't want to since my house was (is!) still messy. She probably wanted to show how much she loved me by keeping my stuff. 

Oh, and it was a very hot day when we went. It surprisingly started to rain when we parked in front of the house. I guess, Mom wanted us to stick around for awhile. The rain made the house a bit cooler :)

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Throwback Thursday: High School Friends

It's been more than three decades since I've been in high school. Some of my schoolmates have been my friends since we were 8 years old. Funny thing is I've been so bad at remembering the birthdate of one of my friends. I always thought it was November 16. So for many decades I'd always greet her on the 16th. I was only corrected because of FB. Her birthday is actually on November 15. 

Missing one here, I think she took the photo.

I greet her on the 15th when our other amigas send their greetings. Sometimes it's really hard to teach old dogs new tricks. I'm lucky my friend is one of the nicest people in the world. We weren't the popular kids back in HS, not the brainiest ones, and not exactly the most quiet ones. I guess we were the reliable, regular kids. 

We were happy in our own little world. We had our baon and ate at the lunch counter everyday. We'd sometimes go to the canteen to buy a drink or additional food or ice cream. Even until now we always eat whenever we meet up. 

Most memorable though was a tradition we started in HS. We'd celebrate Valentine's together. We spent a night in a friend's house and had a measly dinner at a Japanese restaurant. "Measly" because we only each saved up 100 pesos to dine out. We ended up hungry and ate again at my friend's house. Hahaha. We continued the tradition for many years. 

Our parents were very strict, but they allowed us to spend a night in each others house. The five of us would squeeze in each other's bedrooms. I don't remember anymore what we'd do, but it was always fun. To celebrate times we'd purchase matching blouses/pajamas. Last time we did this was in HK when we got matching bear pajamas. 

It's been very hard to bring all of us together in the past decade. One already lives in China, I just moved back here. We were supposed to meet up a few months ago, but schedules and COVID-19 got in the way. We decided to do it another time when it's safe. I hope it happens before one of us becomes a lola, hahaha. 

#BeKind #StaySafe