Day 162 Nanay

When I was around three years old, my parents left us in the care of our maternal extended family for a year while they worked overseas. 

Periodically, they'd come to see us. On one such visit when my mom came, I hid behind my aunt's leg. I literally did not recognize my own mother. My sister and I would curl away from her when she came to sleep with us...only for her to wake up with us on her chest.

My mom is pretty OCD; she cannot go to sleep if the floor isn't mopped just the way she likes it and she has regular titty attacks when I leave my bed undone (although, to be fair, who really needs to make their bed once they hit puberty??). She has a penchant for buying gaudy jewelry and making my skanky clothes disappear along with some Barbie dolls that magically reappear in my cousins' collections. She frequently gets on my ass whenever I miss mass on purpose because that just makes me super unCatholic but had severe trouble explaining to me why the fuck I was bleeding out of my vagina because good Asian women pretend puberty doesn't hit until you're married and ready to birth an army.

Mom loves orchids.

Like, legit love; she brings in every pot when a hurricane hits and even went outside when she knew there was a snake slithering in our backyard just to water them. 


Over a long-distance call, twelve hours away, I wished her a Happy Mother's Day today, catching her right before the day passed on her side of the world. Now to get her a present before she actually gets back...