Remembering Mina

26 November. This was the birthday of my sister Myrna whom we all fondly called Mina.


Mina was the second eldest in our family. Unlike Ate, my eldest sister, Mina was responsible and serious. She was like a second mother to all of us who were younger in the family tree.


I could not forget the day when she did my hair so nicely when I was in grade2. She told me I had to look good because our class was going to have a class picture. She told me to smile when the cameraman finish counting up to three and take the shot. As young, shy and moody as I was, I did not. When I got the picture, she said it was okay and it was not so bad.


Mina's movie idols were Susan Roces and Eddie Gutierrez. She collected photos of the love team and would like so much to go to the cinema to see their movies. However, our father was very strict. He was like our Board of Censor. If we were so keen to see a movie, he first watched the movie himself to see if it was suitable for us to watch. Furthermore, we were not allowed to go to the cinema in the first place, unless he was with us.

One time, however, Mina with my Ate, took me to a second class theatre which showed double program. The movie she was keen to watch then was called Maruja which starred Susan Roces and Romeo Vasquez. As there was another movie, we came home at sundown. My sisters were shocked when we got home because at the door was our father whose face as we figuratively say it was un-paintable.


Ate, began reasoning out, but got a slap on the face. Mina was quiet. When it was her turn to get slapped, she fell straight down to the floor with her eyes closed. Our father furiously lectured to them. I was scared too, but I was young to be slapped and lectured to.


After a few days later when we recalled the episode with a touch of humour, my older cousins said it was surprising because Mina who was the perfect kid, whom they also said was my father's favourite, was in the end not really exempted from the rod. That is, as Mina rarely got lectured to and disciplined.

Mina was not just my big sister but my friend. As young as I was, she shared with me her secrets, particularly about her teenage crush in school by the name of Ruben Perez.


From hindsight, I supposed she also must have wanted to go out with Ruben. But our father's rule was books first, boys last. One time, however, Ruben with his friend Nick who I think got a crush on my Ate, came to visit. Of all days, however, the boys shouldn't have come that day. Why? my father who worked as a mobile patrol police happened to be at home. He regularly stopped by our house anytime he saw fit.

I saw the disappointment on my sister's face when she heard my father who answered the door, told the boys, "No one in his household is sick and therefore, is in no need of any visitors."


Mina survived this heart-breaking episode. After all, she was just a young girl. And she had all of us-- our parents who loved her and we, who were not only her siblings but her friends. Her love for music, singing, drawing, household chores and life put her back on track.


As my parents ran retail businesses and botique, Mina, as well, as my Ate and my big brother Abner, became involved in these. Soon my father gave her a mixed shop to run on her own. The shop was called Mina's Shop and Save Store.

The above is but just a little piece of my huge and fond memory of my beloved sister whom we all lost on 2 November 1979. I wish I could write more... but other things have copyrights in heaven.


This is a video I created in memory of my beloved sister Mina

I thank you Lord I belong to a family

Oh how beautiful is the colour variation of bougainvillea! Every time I see their bracts—white, red, pink orange and yellow, I tend to think of the family I belong to. And when I think of them Lord, I also think of love--because I learn a lot about loving through them.

Am I not blessed to have a mother who trudge one subdivision after another to get me different bract colours of bougainvillea for my genetics class? And could you imagine her catching grasshoppers with me, too and searching for turtle and dead shark?

As for my father, God… did he think I was still 15 years old that he still went with me to get a medical certificate? Why? I was already a postgraduate student then!

Haha! For my father and mother, my siblings and I will always be like their little children in need of help and support.

Lord, it gladdens my heart to belong to parents like them. I thank you forever for them.

And I thank you also for my brothers and my sisters--for Art, Cynthia and Merle whom I go out with to attend concerts and plays and sing praises and share your love to others over plains, valleys and mountains; and also do some crude baking and roasting.

I thank you also for Rommel who runs an errand for me whenever I want to eat Ebisen and for being able to compute my income tax return.

Just the same God, I thank you for Nimrod, my intelligent brother and comrade who talk to me about rockets, booby traps, submarines and the Sinos. Haha! Did he think I want to go to war?

Am I not so blessed? I don’t only have five siblings but more…!! WoW! Amazing indeed to belong to a large family! My siblings are not just my brothers and sisters but also my friends!

Thank you for Mina, Abner, Delmar Jr, too-- Mina who shared with me the little smiles and tremendous pains about life; Abner who skillfully drew for me Magellan, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Gregorio del Pilar; and Delmar, Jr., my bed-ridden brother who taught all of us to be loving and caring. But I tell you Lord…I get so hurt every time I think of them. The thought of their tragic deaths always bring tremendous pain in my heart that I cry, cry and cry….How I wish they were still around!

But then what can I do? But just grow strong and brave to accept things as they are… Life is made of tears, but also comfort and joy...

Lord, I thank you also for Daisy with whom I had shared jackets and jeans, Big Mac and coke and of course basketball games to fight over with when her Motorola team wins over my Crispa. I wish she did not have to fly to Australia because I miss her so, particularly her frowning and crying face whenever my Crispa team win over Motorola.

And I thank you just the same for my Ate. I quarrel with her too! Am I bad? But she was so spoiled!!!! Spoiled by our grandma! How my ears hurt everytime she speaks coarse language! Even then through her worst also shines a little kindness that touches my heart. So I love her just the same, God. You know I do, God.

My family isn’t really that fantastic as you are fully aware, Father. Sometimes we laugh a lot. We sing, cry and pray together. But when we discuss issues in our round table…My! We shout, fight and cry! We do not sound like a family at all! I am sorry to say.

I thank You God because your grace is sufficient, however. After awhile we all can forgive each other and forget about all the fights. Then once more, we are a family again who talk a lot, laugh, sing, eat and pray.

Glory be to You, Lord who binds us together in love and perfect unity.

(From L.R. Blanco’s My Life’s Journal, 1984)