Nanay's getting older

My mother celebrates her birthday today. I called her up early in the morning to say “happy birthday,” and she said thank you. I told her she was getting older, and asked her how she felt. “Very blessed,” she said—blessed because of the Lord’s faithfulness in her life which she has experienced all these 50 years.

My voice was still raspy because I didn’t get much sleep last night to review for my bio lab exam (which was scheduled today but was postponed because of the EDSA People Power commemoration). And so Nanay asked me how I was doing: was I tiring myself too much? Was I pressuring myself to study harder when I ought to be sleeping?

“I still have many terms to memorize, Nay, and I’m not done yet,” I said.

“Of course, that’s biology. You will have to memorize everything,” she said. She further asked me if I was eating the right kinds of food—which can also be read as “Are you drinking your milk?”—among others.

Nanay also asked if I’ve gotten over my drastic math midterm scores—which I still don’t know—because I’ve told her before that there’s a huge possibility of me failing it.

“Of course,” I said—otherwise she might think I’d get suicidal. But really, the Lord has dealt graciously with me, allowing me to realize that even circumstances like these serve as means to expose my weaknesses and therefore allow me to seek Him alone for my strength.

Happy birthday, mother dear.