A Journey Home

"Homecoming means coming home to what is in your heart." ~Anon

NSC - the main road going south to our former place.

Not long ago, I have expressed my thoughts about visiting my homeland. It has been 23 years since I arrived and lived in my adopted country I now called home and I have never been home yet to my own native land. Neither for a peek nor for a sneak.

This year, I will finally be able to let that reality happen for the first time. I pray that God will bless my coming trip and that He will give me His protection as always with good weather permitting.

Twenty three long years of absence is quite a stretch of disciplined patience. My suppressed homesickness are just tuck into soporific segment of each nightfall when it comes. Mastering positive thinking of making impossible possible, I managed to organize my trip home via Taiwan. It's only four months away to go yet, but time does swiftly fly and before long, I'll be at the airport excitedly queuing for my seat on the plane.Will there be anyone to send me off like I sent off my friends back home each time anyone of them left the country? I don't know yet at this stage.

With my friend, Au's help and support, booking was finalized, paid in full and confirmed. In that time, my spirit was already floating ahead home that I could hardly hear and let alone answer the Travel Agent's questions. So Au filled up my vacant mind.

In that length of time living in this country called Down Under, I never lost sight of my beginning, my childhood, my adulthood and over-all, my identity. I never lost sight of where I came from, my family, my friends, classmates, everyone and everything that were mentioned in my latest blog Connecting dots at Facebook.

Naturally, this will be my most anticipated event to look forward to. On the list apart from seeing my long missed family and kins whom I have never seen or meet before - are foods that I am yearning to eat in years. And I will personally do the cooking myself and serve whoever sits on the table,  instead of me waiting to be served. Even our humble food I still know how to cook. I bet my family and friends will be surprised by my ability to retain that expertise I did not dare part from my past culinary lessons I learned both from my late mother and that from school. And those that I learned from friends.

For sure, there will be many things to do once I'll be in my country. There's the visiting of old folks who are still around, the remnants who managed to pull through the test of times. One old Auntie, who is now 80 or 81 years old, the wife of our Uncle, then an only surviving brother of my mother and her sisters from the first wife of our late Grandfather, still remembers me and thought I am living in the province.

Though I met her only a few times, she had been very very kind to me when I visited them in their home. She's a very industrious woman who worked nonstop and I never heard her complain about getting tired. Our Uncle, her husband passed away later than our mother. I must pay tribute to her to say thank you for being kind to me. I still hold our cultural values like keeping an attitude of "debt of gratitude" though not so eloquently expressed to those who are concerned. I keep it deeply in my heart where no one can hear that inner voice.

On our father side, there is one old patriarch who is turning 100 in two months time. His faculty is still as clear as the blue sky,  undiminished by seniority syndrome that hit most of our age-ing citizenry. Deserving much of our respect, we will also pay him a visit. He and his late wife, whom I call Nanay and Tatay (Mom and Dad in English term), had been instrumental for my being a Veterans Educational Benefit Scholar weaved to me by my late father.

Then there are many cousins, in-laws, distant relatives,  nephews and nieces to say hello to!  We are quite a clan; only, we are scattered all over the islands. I expect there would be many handshakes, hugs and kisses; tears and laughter; screaming, jumping, feasting; all those mixture of excitements to deal with. So along with my sister, we will be hoping from island to island to meet up those who are close to us and whom we miss so much.

Of course, we are not discounting our friends and neighbours. Friends who stood for and with us during the hour of our sore trials especially when our parents died one year after the other. We might not be able to find them all, but I'll try my very best to endeavor in looking out for those who are still around, knowing that we only have limited time set in staying there.

Then there are classmates, schoolmates, former employers and their family to consider. I'd like to make a special mention to Maguid Maruhom who had been a family friend to us from our Karomatan days. He is the best friend of our late eldest brother. We fondly regard him as a brother, and one who still holds kind respect and good memories of our parents. We are looking forward to re-acquainting with his family: wife and adult children. That would be the most interesting part because we knew Maguid since we were in our Elementary years.

In my personal agenda, I'd like to revisit interesting sites where our family had been before, like Maria Cristina Falls which is not far from Overton, our last place of residence. It was there where we held our family reunion right after our military father had officially retired from the service.

Maria Cristina Falls by Imelda Piansay

And by how much time and health allow, it would also be nice to see places that I haven't been to yet such as Davao, Bohol and our parents' home births, to name a few. There's plenty to do actually.

Most importantly,  the highlight of my visit would be to step foot one more time for the last time on a hill once owned by our late mother where our late Grandfather built a Nipa Hut (cottage made of bamboo). It's on that Nipa Hut on top of the hill where my dear, kind, patient, and soft spoken Grandfather and StepGrandmother would take me each time they picked me up from our family home and took me back with them to their own dwelling. I would jump for joy whenever our mother would let me go with them.

I can't remember anymore what I was doing there, but the sight of the lush green and sighing or humming cornfields by the hillsides being blown by the northerly wind is still very much in my memory. And of course,  the smiling face of a one-armed Grandfather, who was a shark attacked survivor during one of his fishing rendezvous back in the old province of Masbate, where his second wife, our step-grandmother, came from. I called my Grandparents  Itay and Inay just as what our parents, step-uncles and step-aunties addressed them.

To continue on with the story, that  property went into the hands of the former National Steel Corporation (NASCO). From NASCO, it was changed to NSC after it was sold to a multinational company. It's my conjecture that NSC is possibly placed on  its third receivership at the present time. I'll find that out once I'll get there.

This desire of mine to revisit the memory of my childhood was sparked by a homegrown nostalgia upon learning of our loss of that precious place, the fruit of our mother's long and hard toil, of her sweat, sleepless and tireless labour, day and night, sewing clothes to be able to accumulate the means to purchase and to own that property from her own effort.  A spark which was intensified the moment I saw the photos of the company posted at Facebook by a friend and former high schoolmate, Frank Manga.

Like looking for those people whom we owe lots of debt of gratitude for helping us bury our parents in time of our impecuniosity, I'll also endeavor to seek permission from the present company to allow us to do a family pilgrimage to that piece of land on a hilltop just for sentimental reason with only one thing in mind: to relive the memory of my childhood through our beloved Grandfather and Mother. I pray, that our petition will not be denied so to make my homecoming special and complete and that, it would be my ultimate achievement in life if I'll be able to accomplish my simple dream in my own homeland.

"What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen." ~Cynthia Ozick

I know there will be many astonishing changes ready to be discovered when I come home. If a change can happen in a matter of seconds, how much more for 23 long years? And I'm not going to let that thought worry me because I know many will take good care of me, of us, my sister and I; and perhaps, if my daughters will make it to the schedule and decide to travel to my home country, that would be wonderful! We shall have an excellent Family Reunion!!

In God, nothing is impossible. May we have His guidance and blessings for always.

"How beautiful a day can be
When kindness touches it!"
~George Elliston

Quotation courtesy by Rosidah. Thank you dear kind Rosidah.

The above quotation is also dedicated to my good and kindhearted friend Au, my birthmate. My very best to you Au!!!

Photos compliments of Frank Manga as posted at Facebook. The pictures that sparked my longing for home.

"Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson:  you find the present tense, but the past perfect!" ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

NSC Administration Building 

(The New Owner)

Grandfather's place in one of those hills overlooking this steel plant.

As I'll be turning 61 this year, this will be my surprise Birthday present to myself though we do not actually celebrate birthdays but only for thankfulness sake. The Lord is full of wonders! And to my sailing friend, this is for you too, the King of Poetry, HRM - King Lemieux. In your own words, I find inspiration in our friendship. And I am very proud to share that to the whole world!

Coming Home

Coming home to peace and quiet.
Coming home to feelings warm.
Coming home where there's a fullness,
where love in me is born.
Coming home's a simple journey,
takes no movement on my part.
Instead of listening to my thoughts.
I listen with my heart.

by Sue Pettit (with thanks to Karina of Positive Thoughts)