"La mala hierba nunca muere"

For some personal reason I feel sad that something has been preventing me from visiting my parents' tomb in my hometown. My son last night was asking my permission to clean and offer lighted candles to their lolo and lola and some relatives there too who had long passed away. It has been my tasks to send someone who would clean and cut grass and clean everything there since my brother in law who also would take the initiative to clean it is already in Australia. But then am sure some will take their part to prepare everything for the coming All Soul's Day on November 1. We'll just light some candles for them here in front of our gate as how we spend the day for the deceased in accordance with our tradition. I remember my father as a disciplinarian...and a strait-laced person, and my mother as a stickler of pennypinching...at napaka-kuripot...siya ang bangko ko during my trying financial times way way back.
My elder sister who came before me also died very young, died of big C also...touch wood...napaparanoid tuloy ako. Kasi my father died of kidney failure, and my mother with leukemia. Ang hirap pag health na ang kalaban. That's why I stopped smoking...it will only ruin our body system. Pag nadadan ako sa may cal center I'd see some of them smoking in one corner to pass the time. Naawa ako sa kanila. Ang sarap kwentuhan how my sister suffered so much from smoking. Naku maawa sila sa sarili nila. They'll get nothing out of smoking except illness. Ako I have the passion of collecting lighters. When I went back from Japan, I told my daughter na payagan niya akong mag-smoke kahit 2 sticks lang. Malaki kasi ang problemang dinadala ko...and I need something like smoking. Pag problemado ako, parang narerelieve ako pag nakikita ko yung smoke wracking slowly with thin mass of air. So naawa siguro, bought me a pack of mentholated cigarette. I puffed half of the stick and stopped. Pag naiisip ko yung sakit na ibibigay sa akin, ayoko na. Kailangan pa ako ng kids ko...and I want to stay longer pa. For me, health is wealth.

And also, I remember my dearest elderly-friend, named Bessie, actually she's a distant relative, on my father's side...who died a couple of years ago. She was afflicted of a dreaded big C. In her dying bed, she only wished to see me. When I finally came to see her, she sobbed and told me how she had missed me. After that visit, days later she died. A lot of things she did impart and share to me...we talked everything under the sun...about life, relationships, her struggles and her wisdom. She was very intelligent and very eloquent that's why I did enjoy every time we talked. There was an instance that nagtelebabad kami in the middle of the night hanggang umaga na yata and we both fell asleep with phone still hanging on our ears.
She would always tell me that phrase in Spanish..."La mala hierba nunca muere" that means, bad grass never dies.When she died, I've lost a confidant, a true friend, an ate, and a best friend.