“ANAKTEDS” First, let me explain the title. It is a corruption of the words “anak” and “adopted” which I first heard from my mother in-law’s illiterate lavender (as in lavandera). Finding the corrupted word apt, I had it brazenly quoted and used ever since, without giving that lavender due citation, until now, that is. You see, I just got this: “Tata, adopted mo gud ano hi Vida? January 14 iton it iya birthday dire January 16!” Thus wrote my eldest daughter Ivy about her youngest sister to comment on my piece, “Rendezvous at Rendezvous” which I posted here just last night. Now, let me further explain. When my three daughters were still small, I used to tease them that they were all adopted, that they were just given to us by one woman from Salcedo who used to sell us fish and another woman from Seguinon, a barrio north of the agricultural college where I once taught, who once laundered for us, in exchange for five salmon cans of red-white rice each. And whenever they misbehaved, as little children are wont to do, I would threaten that I would have them returned. And I would have forgotten about all the teasing, but the other year while in Texas visiting Ivy, as well as her husband, a Chevron engineer who must be the Indian governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal’s twin, and their two teenage daughters, she mentioned in passing that she really believed she was adopted, and not wanting to be returned to Salcedo, she told me of the plan she had devised. Knowing of the premium I put on scholastic standing, she told herself that she would always strive to do well in school so that I would, at least, think twice, or regret about having her returned. All through her school days, she had made good her plan. She was second honors from second to sixth grade, and first honors in grade five, aside from placing first in Science at the Division Youth Camp. She was also first honors in first year high school, and second honors in second year up to fourth year. Upon graduation, she was a recipient of the Mercury Drug Award for Best in Mathematics. When she graduated from Bachelor of Science in Nursing, she received the Academic Excellence Award. Later, in her work as a nurse, she received the Nurse of the Unit Award from the Texas Tech University Medical Center. Writing about her now and her plan, I remembered telling her that, even then, I surely would have preferred getting castrated to having her returned, even only for a fraction of a day. Mae, my second daughter, has devised a different strategy. She always carries something in her bag, to prove to anyone and me, particularly, that she’s not adopted. I only learned of this when I requested her to represent me at the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the launch of their book, containing my poems and works of known and unknown Philippine authors. For this book launch, I sent her two letters to present at the CCP as proof that she was my authorized representative and the one to get my free copies of their book. In one letter, I purposely mentioned the word “adopted,” but in the other, I did not. Then, she emailed me back to say that, unlike before, my teasing does not, in any way, bother her anymore for she has her Certificate of Live Birth as proof. Dumbfounded, at first, all I managed to do was tell her to make that possibly Recto-made certificate look more believable by having it authenticated with all the gleaming gold seals needed and all the available attachments of red ribbons, aside from having it laminated. Now, in case, anyone sees her carrying a big bag like what she has in the composite picture and which I have used on purpose, he or she can be sure of one thing to be found in it. Like her elder sister, Mae also did well in school. Aside from bagging honors while in the elementary grades, such as being the salutatorian upon graduation, she was also a Magna Cum Laude when she graduated from her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree. Now, she is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and a member of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA). She had worked as Field Auditor at the Office of the Court Administrator, and as an Accountant I and Accounting Clerk II while at the Supreme Court of the Philippines. At SM Mart Inc., she was an Accounting Officer, and at Blaine Marketing Corporation, she was the Accounting Supervisor. Once, when I learned that her eldest brother borrowed money from her, I wrote her that the payment, according to her brother, would be any of his children she’d fancy and select. She wrote back posthaste to say that she would just strive to have at least one of her own, for which reason she is now in New York, New York with her husband, a fourth-generation Chinese like her, trying to court the stork. And this New Year, they succeeded, at last with a baby daughter “made and assembled” there. (See, Facebook posted-piece: “2014: NEW MOON, NEW BABY, AND NEW BEGINNINGS”.) Vida, my youngest, didn’t seem to be as much fazed as were her sisters by all the teasing about being adopted and the threat of being returned. However, if her brothers and cousins wanted her to cry, they would just say that she was the daughter of Bobby Parks a famous Afro-American basketball player when she was still small. I was only reminded of this when she and I saw on TV Michelle Obama giving a hug to each member of the sweat-drenched American basketball team after their bagging gold in the recent Olympics. Like her elder sisters, my youngest has also had her share of scholastic honors. She was the salutatorian when she finished her elementary grades and a first honorable mention when she graduated from high school. Like the sister before her, she also finished her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy. After her graduation, she had worked as an Accounting Clerk at RD Pawnshop Inc., in Tacloban, before working as a Bank Teller at the Philippine National Bank in Guiuan, Eastern Samar. Now, she is with me here in the Kingdom of Bahrain where she first worked as Secretary and Accounts Assistant at Concord Stationery before getting her present job as Executive Secretary of Securicore. A year ago, her husband, who must be Philippine filmdom’s Dennis Trillo’s long lost brother, came to join her not to add to their boy and girl, now in grades four and three at the Guiuan East Central School, but to follow in my footsteps and have a taste of how it is to be Overseas Filipino Workers. Writing about my daughters, I can’t help but remember these lines written by Khalil Gibran: “Your children are not your children. They are sons and daughters of Lifes longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.” Now, this Arab poet has got me thinking: “How about “anakteds”?
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 06:34:23 +0000
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