family is important
Posted on: May 2, 2021
During this Pandemic, the lock downs have created venues and opportunities that brought some families together for the longest time. This is a blessing to some and to others a restriction. No matter how one sees it; the opportunity or the restriction; the blessing or the curse. It is that half empty, half full glass viewpoint. No matter how we perceive these times to be, to most it was an opportunity to focus and value family.
Thinking about family, makes me remember my father. He was a family provider all our lives as a family. He has been working and our family never lack, though some would say “not so because I wanted something I never got.” But I remember as a small child where food was paramount, we never lacked because of mom and dad. When I was in UB Science High School I can always buy the required books, watch all the required shows and would run to the market to mom, or to Dad’s office if we need to buy a book or pay some contribution of some sort. As a college student I was already working, but still mom and dad paid all the bills. Except some of my tuition when I was on scholarship.
Me and my siblings even earned extra money by helping in the chores and in the market. It was all family life. Those days with mom, dad and siblings gave us memories of our younger days where we do most things together. These did not continue as we grow older and each of us had our own friends, own families and own undertaking.
Family life was extended a little for us because our parents allowed us to be part of the family businesses they set up. Some of us experienced working in the market – hilltop and later on Hanger Market. Most of us, if not all, had worked in the school at one time in our life. I worked in the accounting office as a working student in college. Some of us siblings worked at the hotel and the retail business of my mom. I remember my brother working with dad in the insurance business. My mom and dad were always engaged in one business and would invite us to join them, and some of us did.
Unfortunately, family life was also interrupted with some family squabbles which could be traced back to times that my dad was an absentee dad during our childhood days. Amazing how those seem to have been magnified when we hear someone say “dad, you were not there.” Or during a graduation, where dad was not around to hang the medals to his children and I remember my brother no longer going back on stage to claim his last medal because my dad was not around. It was because dad was somewhere else “serving others.”
In his later years, dad tried to catch up with the family. And when he heard the misgivings, he apologized for his lack of participation in some portions of our lives that to children were seen important. He apologized not only once, but I counted three occasions where he apologized, for his absence during our childhood moments of celebration. We were already grownups and my siblings have already their families and had a better understanding of family life – balancing looking for family provision and spending quality time with family.
This pandemic time, maybe the longest time that my husband and I would be together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and every day of the month. It started last year when we were in San Diego, California when the Covid 19 broke, and came home just one day before the lockdown was declared by the President and the AITF. From that day on, most days were spent together building relationships, renewing friendship and creating memories within the confines of home.
There were times, that I have to leave my husband and be in the city doing work but it also gives me the reflection of what has happened to my father in his old age. Feeling sorry he was not part of our family life and celebrations. And in that reflection, I had made a comfortable decision that in all things – family first after God. So, it is now, and I will not wait that at the later part of my life I will regret. That instead of being with my husband I was out there serving others, and will regret later. God has been good that even in my age he has given me the capability to learn and be able to work at home, learn virtual conferences, where my presence in my absence.
My city hall office continues to run as none of my staff are senior citizens and none have become covid positive. I continue to pray for their protection and health. Because of their presence, the virtual platforms and the connectivity, I continue to be with family and still work 24 hours, seven days a week.
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