I’ve talked about some pesty relatives. Last week, the family moved out of our compound and are now living near the road. Ganyan ang mga “squatter” dito, sa tabi sila ng kalsada nakatira. While we can now breathe easily, we are still on the look out because they don’t live too far away. We can’t be too careful if magnanakaw na ang pinag-uusapan.

Well anyway…I told my mother never to let anybody else live in our small land. However pitiful she might feel of other relatives. Because in the end, it is us that ends up under a bad light. Besides, this is a property that my parents got when we were kids. These people around us are my father’s maternal half-siblings. The pestier of them all? Their mother. My lola.

My father is her eldest and since my father graduated from elementary school, he has been working to support her and her other kids as she move from one husband to the next. She had 4 by the way and bore kids of each one. Now the fourth husband is nanghihingalo na…and she still expects that her kids support her. Guess what? Ako daw ang pumalit sa tatay ko dahil wala na sya! As if lagi akong may surplus! Imagine, merong karampot na nakukuhang SSS pension si mama and she wants a part of it too. Ang kapal talaga ng mukha! The one that is regularly supporting her these days is her unica hija na working as DH in KSA. That woman was married and have 5 kids. Her mother urged her to separate from her husband. Too bad she listened to her mother. But good thing for my lola dahil imbes na yung 5 anak ang padalhan ng pera…siya ang pinapadalhan every month! Matuk mo yan?! Grabe talaga. Three ofher kids, napahiwalay nya sa asawa!

When i started working, I used to send her money…until my mother has to intercept the money because my lola wants to have everything she sees in our kitchen. Sya ang perfect example ng linta. She had many kids because she wants her kids to work at a young age so that they can support her. The husbands she had? Mga wala namang matinong hanapbuhay! Ayy ambot! Since my mother married my father…she succumbed to all my lola’s whims…lahat na ibinigay sa kanya. Isusubo na lang ng magulang ko, ibibigay pa sa kanya. Ang ending? Laging masamang manugang si mama ko. In fact, all her manugangs are bad, according to her! She really is mukhang pera, dahil love ka lang nya pag inaaabutan mo sya ng pera.

I told myself several times I’m not gonna give her money anymore. Because I am a witness to how badly she and her other kids treat my mother. However, dahil kadugo mo nga, lalo na’t gurangis na…tuwing humingi binibigyan ko pa rin. Lahat ng nilutong ulam dito sa bahay, may kaparte sya. Ganyan kami kasama!

Well I cannot choose my grandmother…my father wouldn’t have been born if it wasn’t for her. Then I’d probably wouldn’t be here in this world, if it wasn’t for her. But that’s just the ties that binds her to me. Nothing more. Not even love. Because I don’t love her at all.