Reacquaintance

After what seemed like a very long day, and a literally scorching one as the summer sun continued to heat things up, it was very refreshing to finally meet a nephew I have never seen all this time. The nephew is the youngest child of my first cousin Rosario, who is the youngest child of an elder sister of my father. Tatay is turning 74 later this year and his sister, Nay Arsen (Arsenia) died a few years back at the ripe old age of 94. I think she could have been 100 this year.

My cousin Rosario (we call her Manang Ayo) studied in the same High School many of my relatives in Iloilo went to, the Cabatuan National Comprehensive High School (CNCHS), garnering the highest average any student has ever had in that school (I think the record stands to this day.). She proceeded to study at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City and took her graduate studies at the University of the Philippines Los Banos. She eventually joined the government in what is now the Sugar Regulator Administration from which she will soon be retiring from after so many years of dedicated service to the country. 

She and her family have resided in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental where she and her husband, Manong Mike, brought up their two children, Windy and Ariel. Both children eventually studied at UPLB with Ariel being a contemporary of his uncle, my younger brother Rey. Ariel took up Veterinary Medicine while my brother was taking Biology as a pre-med course. They were both in UPLB at the time our niece Christine (Tintin) was also taking Food Technology at the same university. We were happy to know at the time (latter part of the 1990s) that they knew each other and got together every so often to exchange stories. Unfortunately, I and my sister were not able to know our nephew and so today's meeting was a breath of fresh air, particularly in a day that was quite toxic given the confluence of events after lunch.

I learned a lot today including my cousin giving particular instructions to her son that he needs to meet me and his Lolo. Apparently, Manang spoke highly of us to her children and I knew this to be, based on how my nephew related about his intent to meet up. We had a great talk and I gave him Tatay's and my brother's numbers so he could also contact them. Ariel is heading to the US to attend a conference next week and will be staying in California for a couple of weeks. He'll be visiting my parents' home when he comes back from his trip. It turns out that he is currently a tenured faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine at UPLB and his practice takes him to Manila quite often as he is literally a "duktor ng kabayo." He specializes on horses and most of his clients are racehorse owners. It was a pleasure exchanging notes about university life, especially from the perspective of teachers.

I look forward to a mini-reunion with them in the near future. I even had the chance to talk to Manang this evening after Ariel called her up to tell her we finally met. It is always nice and feels good to re-connect with relatives whom you seem to easily get along with. There is that light feeling to it, and inside you, you know that the person is indeed your blood and shares much of what you had learned from your parents and elders.

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