In the following summer, my grandmother came to the States to visit my aunt. My mom had a car at this point, and on the weekends, she would drive to Queens to pick her up and she would stay with us for the weekend. I was glad to see my grandma. We were never close in the Philippines, but I did miss her and it was nice to see a familiar face again.
I was curious though of why she would want to be with us. That is, why would she want to spend her time in a one bedroom apartment. We didn't even go anywhere.
My mom was kind to her. One of the things she did for my grandma was help her with her bath. My grandma liked having her back scrubbed, and my mom did that for her. My mom made it seem like my aunt was not willing to do that. And honestly, I'm not sure if my mom did all that just to make herself seem like the better person.
We didn't have cable, and The Filipino Channel definitely did not exist back then. I'm not sure if my grandma asked or if it was just my mom's idea, but we found this Filipino video store across the street from the Philippine Bread House, which we sometimes would go to. Or, it's possible we went there for bread and noticed the video store. In any case, we signed up for a membership and rented videos.
Hm. Actually, I'm not sure if they already had Filipino movies back then. Because I'm trying to remember what Filipino movies we watched with my grandma, and I can't actually recall. But I know the place eventually did turn into a Filipino owned store by the time I was in high school.
One of the movies I picked was "The Naked Gun 2 1/2". Or was it 33 1/3? I'm not sure, but it was one of them. I also picked "Problem Child 2", and I remember watching that movie with my grandma. I'm not sure if my mom watched with us. I remember we closed the curtain and the sunlight would still seep through and give the room a yellowish tint. I remember liking the movie, and I'm sure I laughed a lot. I can't recall specifically if my grandma laughed, too, but she never complained.
I have about 25 cousins on both sides of my family. No lie. So when I was growing up in the Philippines, I didn't have much time alone with my grandma. It was kinda nice to spend time with just me and her in America. I was twelve years old. She always had this reputation of being stern and mean, but at that time, she was nice to me. I had gained some weight at that time and sometimes I would lie down down on the floor and suck my stomach in and show her and tell her I was skinny. She would just matter-of-factly say, "You're sucking your stomach in". We never had any big jokes or anything, and we were never huggy-huggy or lovey dovey, but it was still nice.
She went back to the Philippines at the end of the summer. She didn't like winters in America. I remember she was like a superstar whenever she would come back. She would have goodies from the States and my cousins and I couldn't wait to see what she brought.
Anyways, I never saw her again after that. We didn't even talk on the phone and definitely did not write letters. She died a few years later.
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