Place: Brgy. Salud (Bolinao, Pangasinan)
Date: 09 August 2008

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

The house behind my mom was their old house, which is now abandoned. On that day, we were about to go to the fish cages where Aunt Mary (mom’s sister) and her husband Uncle Arthur works as caretakers. We were waiting for the tricycle to pick us up going to the port, and mom asked me to take a picture of her in front of the house.

This house is very memorable for my mom. She grew up here, and when she graduated from college and started working, part of her earnings went to the renovation of this house. Technically, this house was hers, because from a simple hut, it transformed into this - a two story house. Still simple, yet if not for my mom, it would never become like this really.

My brother and I had our own fond memories in this house, too. When we were kids, we would sometimes spend our summer vacation in this house, playing all day with our cousins our age. My maternal family wasn’t really rich, but no day was boring whenever we were there. Although by age 9, I didn’t visit the place anymore, still, the memories from this house were certainly wonderful.

When my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1994 (or was it 1995 - sorry, I forgot the exact year, but it was in the 90s), they decided to give out inheritance to their kids. Their reason, they wanted to give away the inheritance while they’re still both alive, and while their thinking is still okay. My grandparents didn’t want their children to have some problems with the division of their little possessions, so they already divided it while they can. My mom knew that time that this house would be given to her, but unfortunately, it was given to Uncle Carlito.

Grandpa said that when Uncle Carlito asked the hand of Aunt Linda for marriage, my grandparents offered this house to Aunt Linda’s parents as dowry (that time dowry still existed). Since Uncle Carlito and Aunt Linda lived in Manila, they never really stayed in the house, but when grandma died in 1999, their whole family relocated and lived here for some years.

Living in the island was indeed tough, so their whole family decided to go back to Manila, so the house was abandoned. It’s still standing, but part of the kitchen wasn’t good anymore. I don’t know if anyone in the family would do something about this, but as of the moment, mom didn’t want to do something about it because it wasn’t hers anyway. Uncle Carlito owns the house, so it was up to him and his family should they do something about the house.

I know this blog is entitled, “Jenn Was Here,” and that stories have to be about my travels, but seeing this picture just made me wanna blog about it. After all, it was still in tune with my blog - I did shoot this picture. =) I was just sad seeing this piece of memory “go to waste.” I hope Uncle Carlito would do something about this.

*** Jenn ***