Lola Trining

My grandmother died last Friday, July 22, at 2:00pm at Bolinao, Pangasinan.  Tatay was there and had been there for the past few weeks.  Mama went there also, to visit, came back to Manila, and then went back to Bolinao last Sunday.  Among us siblings, Raul, Irene and Dong went to Bolinao with Mama for the wake.

She's a small woman.  Always had been, I would imagine.  I was small when I was a kid, but she didn't look any taller even then.  She walked to church every day, went to the market afterwards and walked back home to cook lunch, that's about a kilometer each way, the market being just beside the church.  Up to a few years ago, if there was any community prayer in the barrio, she led the rosary.

Lola was born and grew up in San Fernando, La Union, where she met Lolo Santiago.  After World War II, they lived in Bolinao, Lolo's hometown, where they raised their brood of ten children.  With Tiong Emong, Auntie Ely, and Auntie Rose in Bolinao and Auntie Mila in La Union, all the rest are in Manila.

Lola was laid to rest yesterday, Wednesday July 27.

I was saddened by the news and I wanted to cry.  I felt like crying, but the tears were dry.  There was an emptiness.  I couldn't scream.  I couldn't get angry.  I just felt hollow and empty.

I was on an emotional roller-coaster this past weekend.

--andoy
28 July 2005