“My,” “Mi” or “Me.” It depends on who among the three of us is texting mom. I prefer “my” as shorthand for “mommy.”
Mother-daughter bonding proved to be a somewhat effective. She stayed with me for a short time February of this year. Weeks before that, my boyfriend’s mom died of her cancer treatment complications. She was a breast cancer survivor for 10 years but another lump showed up somewhere and became her reason to rest. I realized I’m still lucky to have my mother around despite our colorful relationship. So we met halfway in Iligan City where we attended the funeral and from there we departed for Cebu.
Our Cebu experience was filled with both disagreements and laughs. She rarely visits me but this was the first time that she stayed a little longer than usual. Everyday I make funny faces at her and she would comment that my psychotic side shows up every time I do that and that I would never make that face in front of my boyfriend. Partly, she’s right but I didn’t care. I was just happy to have someone sleep on the extra bunk in my room. I’ve been living in Cebu for more than 9 years now and spent the most recent years without a roommate.
The first tourist spot that came to mind was the Taoist Temple. I knew she would like to see the place again. I saw her sitting on the same flight of stairs about 30 years ago in a picture in sepia tone. She said she couldn’t remember much because they were in a hurry finishing the city tour and it seemed to her that moment took only a second. This time we took a picture with her daughter in it:
I wasn’t sure where else to bring her. Time and schedule were constraints so I opted to bringing her to one of the places I frequent – BTC (Banilad Town Center). A lot of special memories happened here and I thought it would be just right to also bring her to this place. She ordered her regular beer and I ordered mango shake. Recalling, I now thought it was funny but it was because I needed to stay sober. I suggested she try the new generation formula but she still likes Pale Pilsen better.
Everytime she visits Cebu, she never fails to visit the Sto. Niño Cathedral and Magellan’s Cross. I wasn’t so much of a fan of the place. I have my reasons but I actually learned to appreciate the place. As tradition, we lined up to see the image of the child Jesus. The place was renovated since she last came and so my mom posed away as I took shots. She wanted all her 100+ pictures printed but I told her digital copy is the new thing but she insists having something to hold in her hand is different from staring at her PC screen.
All I can say is that she’s charming in her own ways. I felt like I was even older. My taste for color is more conservative than hers. I remember her playing The Sims game and tiling her bathrooms with black and white. She said she liked it that way. Now she’s renovated our bathroom back home. I haven’t seen it but I’m sure it looks better than the last time I was home. I’m confident in saying that because I remember how she transformed my sister’s room into a very cozy den. The leopard-print sheets on the bed makes you want to dream away and the opaque pale blue curtains softens the sunlight going into the room. The mood was so calm it makes me long to always sleep in a room like that.
Mom’s back home and I’m sure she’s enjoying preparing her well-loved spaghetti, baking her signature brownies, designing jewelries or just crocheting. She’s a natural artist and a free soul. Some part of me says it’s too domesticated and another part of me says I want to do just that.
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