See You Again Tita Belen

My aunt is going back to the US of A tomorrow. While here, she made sure that everybody had his and her share of “pasyal.” My aunt has what psychologist would say a “relational” temperament. Back in the US, she is a constant in Filipino social gatherings, and in some, she is even in-charge, such as in the last commemoration of the anniversary of Filipinos’ migration to the US, where she actively promoted a parade of sorts and prepared the souvenir program. We will miss her because she is somebody who wants everybody to be always around her. Maybe it’s because in the US of A, she has to really work hard, even as she is past middle age. And so she savors every moment here where she can simply bum around.

She stayed with my other aunt, who is her exact opposite, an introvert and oftentimes, anti-social. But this aunt now has to entertain her guests, and, reluctantly, host lunch and dinners for her visitors. Good for her because she was, for a while, distracted from her usual house chores.

In her house, we had at least three nights of “Bingo social”. This is a family bonding activity. Every time my aunt comes home, she invites all of us -- from my mother who is now the eldest in the very small clan, to my niece who is eight years old -- to play Bingo at my aunt’s place. Bingo time is always a happy time, even if the kids just borrow “five pesos” from anyone who wins in order to have something to put in as “taya.”

My brother is the funniest Bingo master. But everybody becomes a joker once in charge. The Bingo held at our house is more for us to hear each other shout and laugh out loud at different antics that were deliberately performed to make noise and have fun.

I cherish these moments when my elders, now all without a husband, (one is single, the other one is a widow, and the two are divorced) gather and bond. My aunt comes home and is welcomed by depressing realities in her sibling’s circumstances, but once she gets over her “depression,” her natural gregariousness outshines a bleak perspective and she now just begins to take everybody to the mall.

So everybody had dinners she paid for, and she bought everyone something. She is not that rich but she seems to want to make everybody feel “rich” even for a moment. When she checked in at Shangri-La for a night, she wanted to fetch my mother so “she could have a taste of what it feels like to sleep in a hotel.” Her friends, who were, like her, gregarious and social animals, would take her to the casino and up to the wee hours of the morning, they would play. Once she won and all those who were with her got a “balato.” While here, she also kept herself busy by meddling into some of her sibling’s problems and trying to solve some she did not create in the first place.

My aunt is going back to the US of A tomorrow. She’ll be back in January at her son’s wedding, and she is saying that we should all attend that wedding and wear “proper clothes.” In fact, she has already bought her “Terno” for that affair. All I can say is that the motif canary yellow will only enhance her “sunlit” view of the world.
Happy trip Tita Belen. See you next year.