roasted chestnuts in the Santa Cruz church courtyard or salted peanuts at a nearby Chinese store called Hen Wah, which we would take to the movies. It was from my mother that I first heard that peanuts were “food for the brain,” something I still believe to this day. Movies, peanuts and other nuts, and a running interest in entertainment programs have been my way of destressing. When she became busier as school principal at the Dongalo Elementary School, she allowed me to watch movies with her “favorite” teachers (who eventually became my ninang and ninong ), presumably to keep me out of trouble and harm’s way.
“No amount of success,” she would always say, “can ever make up for a broken family.”
My mother was a disciplinarian but as the principal’s daughter, I was allowed more freedom and access to roam the school premises. It was often joked about that my school clothes would always be either ripped around the waist or the hemline after a day of too much playing. (Pants and shorts were not yet in vogue.) Guess who ended up sewing my torn clothes? My home-economics teacher! The same one who took me to the movies and was one of my ninang . My mother never showed interest in traditional motherly chores like sewing, washing clothes and cooking. I’m the same now; I prefer to write and read rather than do something around the house. One amusing incident my mom loved to tell her friends about was when I was in Grade 1 or 2 during one examination time. I finished ahead of my classmates so after passing my paper, I started going around and volunteered to check their answers.
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