I POSTED this on my FB yesterday:
“The senior citizens and the halfway to senior citizenship my mom and dad dropped by easy learning to have something printed. Pag uli nila, nakasakay na sa sakyanan nila, ani ang eksena
mama: taysa! taysa! tan-awa sa kung nabilin nako akong antipara!
me: naa sa imong ulo! (katawaha akong papa)
me: ay taysa! pa, ang imong gipa print? (katawaha akong mama)
frantic searching inside easy learning by the halfway to senior citizenship members (meaning kami ni john)
papa: naa ra! (naa ra diay sa seat abay ni mama ang papers)
gakatawaha akong mama: naa ko iistorya sa inyo nga joker kaayo si papa katong naa siya nalimtan sa atm... ay, nalimtan na nako. sunod na pag balik nako, akong iistorya! joker kaayo to!
:) it's sweet how these two are still together, bahala na sige na sila kalimot sa ubang butang. puli puli lang silag kinanchawa.”
rMY parents are both 65 years old. They had survived raising four kids. At this point, they now occasionally enjoy sabotaging the parenting of their children by spoiling their grandchildren.
They also spend a lot of their time bickering with each other. On most days, my dad would talk to my mom about what he saw on the news and my mom would reply with who slapped who in her numerous teleseryes.
There were days when I would catch my dad dyeing the hair of my mom. And there were times when they would get into an argument because my dad would refuse to wear the shirt my mom wanted him to wear. These days, with no kids permanently residing in the family home, and with so much time in their hands, trivial things begin to take a lot of importance in their daily life.
A luxury they really deserve because after all, they have been through so many difficult challenges together. My dad is a kidney stone former so every few years his kidney stones have to be taken out. My mom had always been at his side every kidney operation, from the Jurassic era of needing to have open surgery to the latest PCNL procedure. About a year back, my mom had to have a hip replacement surgery and for months, it was my dad who would bathe her and motivate her to go to her physical therapy sessions.
The challenges they faced were numerous and they have sailed the roughest seas. But with God’s grace, they are still together, enjoying their twilight years. Sometimes out of pure corniness, my dad would tease my mom by telling us that my mom could not sleep unless he would hold her hand. Something my mom would vehemently deny.
Whenever this happens, I would stick my tongue out, wrinkle my nose and blurt, “Yuck! Corny!”
But usually after these kinds of scenes, at night when I am with my own snoring husband and our little one, I would stare at him and our sprawled daughter and I would pray that we would also live long enough to be that corny, and have numerous funny moments of forgetting things.
The grace of seeing my parents growing old together makes me believe that my own little family can also survive all the challenges that life would throw our way.
It also serves as a constant reminder to value and take care of each other because at the end of it all, career, material possessions and a fat bank account would amount to nothing if no one is there to tell you that your eyeglass is on top of your head and good naturedly laugh at you while doing it.
At the end of it all, sometimes what really counts is a hand that will hold you while you are sleeping.
Cheers to married life!
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