Sep 12 - Day 2 to 50
It is often said that for one to move forward, one has to
also look back. Today in history marks
key events that could help us as people in general to move forward into the
future. On this day in 1217, French
prince Louis & English king Henry III signed a peace treaty. 49 days into my birth, Sep 12 is also special
in that in 1910, the first known female cop in the US, Alice Stebbins Wells was
appointed by the LAPD. Likewise, in 1992
the first African American woman to go into space aboard Endeavour STS-47, Mae
Jemison, who was also a physician takes off.
Today, on the 2nd day of my 50 days to 50th,
I pay tribute to the first female influence in my life, my great grandmother
Felisa Belleza Linco who passed away in 1994 at the ripe old age of 110. My lola Peling was a jack of all trades. First and foremost a farmer and landowner,
she worked the land and would be up before daybreak tending to her chickens and
other farm animals, cooking meals for the family and harvesting the day’s crops
whilst caring for other plants and trees to ripen or bloom. She knew herbs that can heal, leaves to boil
and drink when you have the flu or stomach ache, and prayers in Latin that she
piously said three times each day. She
was a woman ahead of her time, having been widowed early, she remarried and
kept only her one child from her first husband, Selvino Linco. Her second husband Perfecto Enrile or Lolo
Pecto became the father-figure for her only son, Eufracio or Tatay Pacing. Together, they too would raise their
grandchildren, all five of them when they were living together in the farm in
Kawayway, Murcia. Life was hard but the
land was generous and bountiful. Lola
Peling was the hardest worker of them all but also the most gracious
provider.
No one knew exactly how old she was but sometime in 1990,
when everyone thought she was at death’s door, we all came home to Bacolod to
visit her and perhaps, pay our last respects.
I was already in college then and asked her if she knew how old she was. She candidly replied that she can no longer
remember and stopped counting when she reached past 70 years, but the one
poignant memory she has, which she was certain that she was 12 or 13 years old
at the time, was when our National hero, Dr Jose Rizal was shot in
Bagumbayan. José Protasio Rizal Mercado
y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist during the twilight years of the
Spanish colonial period of the Philippines and was indeed shot on December 30,
1896 in what is now Rizal Park in Manila.
If she was certain to be 12 then, it would be a simple math calculation
to infer that, at that time in 1990, she was already 106 years old! And yes, she recovered and was up and about,
feeling so happy that she had visitors.
To this day, I remember her smell of tobacco and nganga
(betel nut) that she liked to chew, and the fragrant coffee beans she boils
early in the morning. Her famous
power-giving and health-enhancing “laswa” a broth cooked from garden vegetables
with salted fish. Her scrumptious duck
adobo that she prepares when we visited her.
Her colorful patadyongs (native, long, woven cloth worn around the
waist) and how long and silvery her hair was.
She never became senile except for a couple of episodes when she would
start speaking in Spanish, telling my aunt who must have resembled her sister
in their younger years that they are taking the carriage to a baile (dance) or
to swim in the river. Most of all, I
recall how she would kiss. This is the
“besar” of the old people, when they would use their nose to vigorously sniff
your cheeks or temples of neck. It’s like she is inhaling you, your essence but
in a good way. Reconnecting you to your
roots. I taught my daughter how to kiss
like that…reserved only for family, those we dearly love.
Today, I light a candle and send a wish that I may gracefully
grow as ancient and full of wisdom as my first female lodi (idol), my lola
Peling. And that like her, I too die
peacefully in my sleep when it’s my time, welcoming death like an old friend
who finally has come to take me home.
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