Summer memories 4

And after all our chores, it was off to the beach at the back of my lola’s house. And we would spend the whole day there, going home only for meals and the obligatory nap. After siesta, we would rush back to the beach and swim and build sandcastles and swim and …

We wouldn’t go home until the sun would set and our aunt would fetch us back.

Summer memories 3

My lola’s garden was the envy of her neighbors, including the former First Lady Imelda Marcos who hails from the same town. The latter built their family’s mausoleum right across the street from my lola’s house. Whenever Imelda would visit, she would drop by and cajole my lola to sell her flowers. My lola, who knew Imelda from when she still a kid, would politely refuse of course. In a way, I felt that that was my lola’s way of protesting how Imelda and her husband was running the country.

Summer memories 2

We didn’t really begrudge these tasks of watering the plants and sweeping the yard. Except that we had a strict, then-single aunt who would watch over us doing our chores. “We” meant around ten or more cousins staying in our lola’s place for the summer. The chores were divided among us — it was a huge yard and garden.

Summer memories

We would spend our summer vacation in my maternal grandmother’s house in Tolosa, Leyte. Part of our summer chores, before we were allowed to run off to the beach behind the house, was to water our lola’s plants. She had lots of flowering plants, including orchids like the one in the picture above.