Fighter

She has survived three strokes, countless hospitalizations and organ infections. It’s comforting to know that in the end, she chose to sign off quietly and peacefully. We’ve been ready for a while now. We’ve come to accept that really, it was all for the best, that we’d rather she take her well-deserved rest already.
 
Part of me wished that she would completely recover. Be able to eat normally again, talk again, walk again. But part of me was being more realistic and just prayed that her remaining years would at least be comfortable.
 
She has survived three strokes, countless hospitalizations and organ infections. A 90 year-old body can only take so much beating. But Apung Milagring’s did. Now if that isn’t a resilient fighter, I don’t know what is.
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A big chunk of my childhood memories involved Apu. From the brief time she and Ingkung lived with us at our home, to the many summer vacations me and my other cousins spent at hers in Dila-dila, Sta Rita.
 
Every summer, April 25 was a date my cousins and I always look forward to. It’s the barangay fiesta and for the days leading to it, we would already be there, supposedly to help out with the preparations, but we would just end up wreaking more havoc with our kakulitan and kalikutan. Haha!
 
For every major occasion – Holy Week, the fiesta, her birthday, Undas, Christmas – there was something memorable happening courtesy of Apu. We rolled hundreds of flour balls used for the sampelut. We accompanied her to the Guagua market so early in the morning (uhm, I almost always passed for this one, haha). We collected sampaguita flowers from the fields to be used for flower offerings for our departed loved ones every November 1st. And one of our annual favourites as children – we celebrated her birthday in swimming resorts.
 
I enjoyed my childhood immensely and Apu was one of the major reasons why. She was our ‘lola’ in every sense of the word and for that we will forever be grateful. Her body may have failed her during her last few years, but thank God her mind and heart were still intact. She still knew us and her eyes responded just as expressively whenever words fail her.
 
Even to the last of her hours, I feel like she was still concerned about us – the people she was about to leave behind. It was like she knew that more than ever, we needed her wisdom, guidance and strength of character. You would think that people who are now grandpas and grandmas themselves would already know what to do in any situation. But sometimes, it takes a family’s matriarch to sort things out.
 

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I first drank coffee as a child when I accidentally drank Apu's cup instead of the the Milo she would make for all of her grandchildren. You see, whenever we stay at her house for our annual summer vacation for a whole week leading to the fiesta, she would make sure we are well fed and taken care of and "shouting" and "forcing" us to drink and eat our Milo-pandesal breakfast was just one of her many ways in making us feel at home.
 
It was just a little sip of bare black coffee with a little sugar, but boy, did I fall instantly in love with the drink. Fast forward to 20+ years and here I am, still addicted to coffee -- more than ever. You're the reason why I am now hooked to Starbucks! Haha!
 
To the most resilient woman and matriarch that I know, and to the one who introduced me to coffee, Apung Mila, have a peaceful journey to the other life. Makapag-paynawa naka rin! Panan mu ke karin. Oneng ali naman dusuldit ne. Dakal salamat, kaluguran daka.