"itlog na pula" (salted red egg.) Chapter 2.

As a child of the early 1990's I felt the effects of mt.Pinatubo's eruption early in life, My family's main source of livelihood was agriculture and lots of our farmlands where gobbled up by lahar and heavy ash fall, making it hard if not impossible for the soil to yield fruit. My mother's father was a green thumb, I must have taken after him, The sorrow in him was evident by his declining health, but that didn't break his spirit, he was too strong to stay down permanently, unfortunately, a couple of years after the volcano's eruption, my family still had livelihood problems which prompted my parents to leave the country when I was still an infant.

                                                           
I felt every drop of love and every inch of sacrifice my mom's parents gave to me, my grandmother would take me to church on a bicycle and bought me fruits with the little money she had, when I was about six, I could remember it as if it only happened yesterday, I came home tired from walking and helping around in the farm and all there was to eat was a piece of "itlog na pula" (salted red egg.) without hesitation or any trace of uncertainty, my grandmother gave it to me, I gleefully ate it, but my jaw dropped with sadness when i saw her putting some salt into the platelet of rice she had and ate it in place of what she gave me.

"wag kang umiyak apo"(do not cry my child) she said with a sweet smile. "God is good, we are still here, there's no reason to feel sorry, we should be happy because we still have this blessing to share." those words echo in my head every single time I'm about to eat, which is why it has never been my habit to accept treat that is sweet and costly, I learned not to spend too much,
My only regret is that now that i can eat practically anything I want, The people I want to share with the most are already gone. I never talked back to my grandparents (mother's side) I had nothing but love, respect and positive feelings towards them, every Sunday my mom never looks for me, she knows I'm at the cemetery,spending quality time........