Yesterday, like many families around the country, we visited our dearly departed relatives. I woke up at 7am after sleeping like a log for eleven hours. Our tito sent the all-new Nissan Urvan to fetch us since our driver is unavailable. So we set out first to go to Holy Cross Memorial Park before going to Bulacan. I was about to blog about the trip using my mobile phone but then I realized that I can only write a limited number of characters that even my introduction won't fit. So I decided to make a mental note of the trip instead.
We took a never-before-seen alternate route to Holy Cross Memorial Park. We made a wrong turn at first and ended up at a dead end on a steep and narrow road. Then we tried again, we took a turn on the right corner and the rest is an Amazing Race Family Edition experience. The signs we were trying to follow are so miniscule, it's so easy to miss it. Good thing my cousin has where's-waldo-trained-eyes that we were able to follow the miniature signs. On every turn, the road becomes narrower and narrower and then on the last turn we got to what seemed like a private property, that we're starting to wonder if we're on the right road. We continued on and we finally got to our destination at half the time it would have taken us if we took the road we used to take. Turns out it was the back gate. It does pay to take the road less travelled.
There weren't as much people as I've expected, but apart from that, everything seemed normal. We lit our candles, said our prayers, cleaned a little, ate our lunch, waited for the next batch of relatives and then left for Bulacan. We got there at around 2 pm . Like usual, we walked around the house and looked for interesting stuff. My tito is part of the production team for Encantadia (if I'm not mistaken, production director I think), so some of the props (and even the clothes) and some other stuff are there at the house. Also, my tito has a new gadget, he's got a laptop! And he showed us some pictures from the shooting. Then we saw Phantom of the Opera lying around on the table, so we watched it on his laptop. It was a nice movie and I liked the songs. Very theatrical. Me and my sister sat through it for more than 2 hours. I liked the movie, but not as much as I liked his laptop! Then, after eating a delicious palabok they bought somewhere, I took my usual afternoon nap. I woke up to eat dinner and right before we slept, my tito told us a scary story that's happening at our house. Our house is a really old spanish house complete with capiz windows, pillars and all that. The front road is almost like a main road where buses, jeepneys and tricycles drive by. He said some jeepney drivers asked him about an old lady standing upstairs by the window looking sternly at them. Apart from that, they also saw a beautiful lady in red clothing by the window. There are no longer any old ladies living in our house and no, I wasn't standing by the window wearing red (hehehe). It seems that they are pertaining to one of our lolas who died last 2003 (she's known to be masungit, so I guess that's her). So as not to scare the other people, they just made up names when they ask who it was. As for the beautiful lady in red, it was the life-size statue of the Virgin Mary that we have upstairs. La Virgen Dolorosa I think. (Sorry I wasn't able to take a picture of her but it's the one where she was crying and there's a stabbed heart on the chest). Every year during Holy Week, she's always a part of the procession. Way back when my tito's mom was still alive, she saw that beautiful lady in red lying down the bed. Quite miraculous they say but it scared me.
We visited the grave of my tito's mom, our lola, this afternoon. He made a theme for this year's Undas. This year, it's chinese (they say next year it's Filipiniana). It was complete with red rectangle-shaped papers around the grave, chinese lanterns, incense sticks, round fruits, chinese music, chinese food, chopsticks (on my hair) etc. My tito even donned a chinese outfit. All the people passing by never failed to look our way, one man even spilled the spaghetti he was carrying because he was too busy looking. My tito really knows how to attract attention from people. Here's a blurry picture of it:
I was planning to drop by Bubu's wall on our way home, but then we got home a bit late (around 9 PM). So I promised that I'd visit him tomorrow. Last Sunday, I bought a frame for the wallet size picture I got from Ate Danette and I can bring it whenever I visit him. I'm quite excited to see the finished columbarium, Ate Danette said the fountain near his wall is finished already. The last time I visited, I think they were just halfway through and so I couldn't stay longer. Now I can stay as long as I want!. Hehehe. I'll see yah tomorrow Bubu! ;P
