Thank You Dear Nanay!

This is my Nanay

You don’t know her, so let me introduce her to you using these simple illustrations so that you will have an idea on how a wonderful person she is and that I am really grateful that I have a mom like her.

Here it goes:

We had a complete and happy family for nine years.

Yup, I had my dad for only 9 years because we lost him early.  My mom became a widow as young as 36 years old.

She had all the reasons to be sad, get mad, stop living and she can even send all of us to an orphanage but she didn’t do any of that.  She did her best to give us all the things that we need, even though it means setting aside her own personal needs. Her only source of income was her salary from a sewing factory, and since that is not enough to support us (me: 9 yrs old, my brother: 5 years old and sister: 3 years old), she sells almost anything she can think of  as an additional income: cosmetics, appliances, clothes, underwear, anything legal.

She chose not to go abroad to take care of her young kids on her own while she works at the same time.  During lunch break, she runs from the factory to the house to check out her kids that will go to school.

Since she was still young when my dad died, there were also some men who courted her, but she rejected all of them since she wants to focus on us more.

With all her efforts and hardships, she was able to send all of us in college on her own.  She always believed that finishing school was the only thing she can give us.

That is only a FEW of the reasons why I think my mom is the BEST MOM in this world.

I never wrote her a letter or even said how much I love her personally since we are not the type who speak out our affections with each other since we believe that action is better than words.  But, I think for once I should put it in words and tell her how important she is, that is why I am writing her a letter.

Dear Nanay,

I will start this letter by saying SORRY for not telling you personally how grateful I am to have you as my mom.  I can never go through life this far and able to face the challenges that came my way without having you to guide me when I was young.  Even though you are a working mom and struggling from one tasks to another, you still had the time to check out on each one of us.  At the end of the day, even if you are already tired and need a rest, you would rather prepare our things for school the next day.  Even when we are already asleep when you get home, I know that you are the one that always put a towel on our backs.

Nanay, I would like to Thank you for raising us to be God fearing people.  Now, I realize that the reason why you did not give up on us eventhough you don’t have dad to help you anymore, is because God provided everything and filled up the missing spaces in your life.
When I was young, I envied our neighbors who have playstations and VCD’s and that we only have a small TV.  But later on, I realized that the reason behind that is to have a small electric bill and for us to be more active and meet other people outside and not to be glued in front of the tv all day.
You always tell me that I should be independent and to not depend on anybody.  I realized now, how important this is, so I am doing my best to have my own income and not just leave everything to my husband.

I don’t know how you did everything you did for us, but I am really proud of you and thankful that God gave you to our life.  If I will have another life, I will still chose you to be my mom whatever the situation will be.

I will FOREVER love you, and I hope I can also do all the sacrifices you did to raise us.  Now that I have my own family, I appreciate what you did for us even more.

Thank you Nanay!