my nanay's birthday

Happy birthday to my mother! She’s celebrating her 73rd today! She’s in the Philippines right now for her summer vacation. She’ll be coming over on Sunday morning for a two-week stay here in Korea.
Highlights of my mother’s life so far:

• born in Dagupan City in 1932
• was 9 years old when WWII broke out, was adopted by a Japanese couple since she was an orphan at a young age
• only had elementary education
• worked as “yaya” to support herself
• married my father when she was 18 in Pasay City
• had her first child when she was 19
• had a total of six children
• had ME when she was 42 (really!)
• supported the family by doing laundry for others and dressmaking
• moved to Angeles City and started a cafeteria business in 1977
• a widow in 1993 (married for 42 years)
• first travelled to America (her dream :D) in 1991
• first travelled to Korea in 2004
• speaks Ilocano, Panggalatok and a few Bicolano
• speaks English a lot better than an average college-grad Korean 😀
• doesn’t cook as well as my father (he was the “chief cook” in our cafeteria)
• a devout Catholic

My mother didn’t have the education that my siblings and I had but she and my father worked so hard to put us all through school. She has never stopped working even if she doesn’t need to work at all. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit her diligence. I got my father’s happy-go-lucky attitude instead.
She has never stopped supporting her children… including me. She has always been generous not only with us but with other people as well. My family-in-law thought that she’s a lot nicer and friendlier than I am, which is very true. Everybody in my old neighborhoods, the red light district of Fields Avenue 😀 (where we once had a cafeteria) and Josefa Subdivision (our residence), calls her “nanay.”
Anyway, I wish my mother a longer life… she still wants to attain a lot in life! As if she hasn’t accomplished so much!