Happy 57th Mama! Cheers!

Today we celebrate our mother’s birthday.  She’s 57.

Though I sometimes gets confused if her birthday falls on the 5th or 7th, I will never be wrong of her age. I will always remember that she got pregnant at 21. The story of how I was conceived and the fairy tale that started due to my presence is something for the books, I must tell you. My parents’ love story was the classic “you and me against the world type”. And they have survived the world.      

And yes, today is our mother’s 57th birthday. Her life, safe to say, revolves around these roles – a daughter, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend. How I am now, what I am now can be credited to (or blamed on) how I see her growing up.      

I have seen, to this day, how diligent and submissive of a daughter she is.  The way she has been as a wife was what made me thought at the tender age of eight that being a mother is the best profession in the world – that, that is what would complete me. Everyday I would watch her, and experienced first hand, her patience, passion, love and understanding to us, her four children. She would painstakingly prepared reviewers for us, taught us how to read, guide us through our lessons and crafts. Imitating her was something like a serious past time for me, as I learn how to chop vegetables and meat, cook, sew, deal with people. I enjoy the times she would brush and braid my hair, one thing I enjoyed doing to my daughter now. She calmly explained to us how easier it is to fight back at people who put us down or hurt us, and how harder it is, yet more humane to just walk away and leave everything to God.

Mama’s words sometimes go against her actions, she’s not a saint anyways. She would be mad and shouting at us sometimes to finish our chores but would still finish them herself in the end. When I was giving birth to my first child, it was her that I was calling for. And what motivated me that I can go through that successfully, aside from making sure I get to see my baby well, is the thought that Mama have gone through that four times, without the medicinal advancement I was enjoying at that time.

And now that I have my own kids, Mama is still there. She "takes" my place whenever I had to work abroad for a while. And when I am home, she would still do everything to make my life easier. I could go on forever giving praises and somewhat spill some sour beans about her unintentionally.  But to sum it all, I am very much thankful for the 36 years of your life shared with us.

Happy Birthday, Mama! I love you.