MY TIA PARING !

This is my, Tia Paring.  She is pretty, isn't she?

According to Rose Kennedy: "Life isn't a matter of milestones but of moments."

If I can only put into words those moments I spent with my Tia Paring my milestones will fill a book!

To mention some:

She sewed my dress for my first piano recital .. a white organdy dress with flowing  layered skirt.  I can not forget those times she would come home during her break from work just to show me how to do the lazy daisy stitches on each layer. We chose the maroon color and  I felt  like a princess as I sat before the piano that morning with that skirt covering the whole piano bench!  I was 9!

Then, one day, I discovered a secret!  I often wondered how she always had money for everything.  One day somebody came, crying.  They talked.  Then she went to a  cabinet, took something from inside, gave it to the neighbor who thanked her so profusely I thought my Tia's hand would be broken. That's when I discovered that in that mysterious cabinet she kept a box for her loose change so she could have something to give to those who come  to her unexpectedly.  No wonder her house was always full of people on Christmas day.

Like many parents of her generation, she never demonstrated her affection publicly or privately, but  I know that she loved me and my older sister very much.  She was the one who showed me how to "take care" of myself when I first had my "monthly visitor".  I was coming home from school when I noticed her by the door.  That was unusual.  As I entered,  she whispered to me to go to the bathroom and there she talked to me about that girly thing.  That's when I learned that she had been checking the clothes I took off every morning.  Oh, and I can't imagine how many of my underwears she had hand washed for me.

On my mom's side, I have another name: Minda.   That's one thing I will miss the most. I will never hear her call me by that name anymore.