The Widow and the Matriarch
We are celebrating husband's 37th birthday this December and while prepping up for an advance celebration, I was in the kitchen with my mother-in-law when she asked how old my husband is as she wanted to validate his age. I answered the number and then she got silent, and said, "So I'm already 30 years a widow". And that kept me silent as well. As she was talking, I could feel the pain inside her suddenly gruffy voice, she remembered that 30 years ago on the fifth day of a cold December night, her husband succumbed to cardiac arrest. And after that, her whole being was dedicated to working her life off as a solo parent trying to raise three boys, my husband the youngest of the brood. The thirty years that came after Tatay's death was kept as memories filled with challenges and grief, but there were also many times they had celebrations of a kind, one that would keep them going and going even if it meant not having a father in the family. And so she ...