Together Again

“First love never dies.” That is one of the well known quotes about love. Well, this story that I will share to you validated the said quote through the lives of my grandmother and second grandfather.

This story started way back before the Philippines was colonized by Japan. This was the time when the Americans started to introduce their own system of education to the Filipinos. Lola Memeng (grandma Memeng) was trained by American educators to become one of the local teachers in remote areas. She was sent to a remote island called Camotes. This is now one of the tourist spots in the Philippines. As she went there, she became one of the belles in the area.

She was pretty, tall, smart and had long black hair. She met a man, named Bador, and they fell in love. Unexpectedly, Bador had to go to the capital and study in a university. They were separated. As years gone by, communication was not well established; so each one went to their separate ways. The man got married while working in the city while Lola remained single. Then time played a joke on them and they met again. This time Lola Memeng saw Bador with his wife and children. From then on, Lola Memeng, decided to forget the man and got married to another who became my biological grandfather.

As the Japanese invaded our soils, my grandfather died inside the prison cells. He was suspected as one of the revolution man since he was one of the prominent and well respected men in the area but he was not. At that time a lot of the prisoners escaped and he was one of those who were left behind and died. Lola Memeng was left with three daughters, the eldest is my mother. Life moved on and the Japanese left. This time, Bador was required by his job to go to Lola Memeng's place. There they met again and he told Lola that his wife died due to sickness. 

To make the long story short, both of them realized that they were still in love with each other and decided to get married. The children opposed to the idea. Most of all, Lolo had a dozen of children and my mother was the sole hard worker in the family. It means that she became the man in the family by doing hard labors in the farm. Somehow, no one can stop their decision and they were tied as one. Later, the children accepted the fact that they are now one big family.

As the title implied, they were together again. Yes, time and circumstances separated the two but as people said, first love never dies. In a day, the clock moves as it should be but in the end it goes back to where it started for another brand new day. Indeed, together again and a new start.