Lonely Table

When I was a little girl, I remember my parents having a huge wooden table with eight wooden chairs where eight people can sit and dine together.

As I am blooming in my adolescent years, I recalled that our wooden table and wooden chairs started to give off due to constant floodings in our birthplace in Barangay Baliwasan that reached knee or waist deep.

All the furnitures that my parents invested before were gone to waste one by one like old Guava tree behind our old house giving off its branches and twigs as its roots gradually eaten by insects, bugs and molds.

Like the old Guava tree, my father's health was failing then gradually succumbing to death until one day we lost him while he was there lying on a hospital bed with a smile in his face.

Again like the old Guava tree, it didnt retire to return to its nature until we grew up tired of eating its fruits. It didnt stop from bearing fruits and growing more branches despite the heavy floodings then until my father saw a good place for us.

My father worked hard till his last breath so we could finish school and find a well a good job of our won. He made sure that we are all in good hands and bought a property where there is no floodings to destroy our furnitures and fruit trees.

His last request then was for us to transfer to our property in Putik once he's buried and united with Almighty. We granted his wish although most of us objected to staying in Putik because of its distance to the town. But we managed and now we have again many Guava and Mango trees, we have coconut trees and bananas, calamansi and other vegetables, its like tending to a mini farm and we didnt experienced floodings.

After five years when my father was gone, my mother started to think of building her life in her huge house. She said she wanted a big table good for eight person. I said no, it will just make her more lonely because she will be sitting and dining in a huge table along with her children.

Tatay is gone and who will sit on the 8th seat? So she decided to have six seater table, but then again I said no, it would still be lonely for her since three of her children are all married and living their own lives that includes me.

But she said during special occasions we visit her, and ignored my advise.

Two days ago I visited her. Her house is just a stone throw away. She was crying alone and I asked her what's her problem.

She said I was right that having a huge table with six seats will make her utterly sad.

I asked her why when she has two more with her, my youngest sis Emma and my fourth brother Bobong and plus my cousin Jainab.

Nanay said Emma moved to a new apartment recently just near her office, while my brother Bobong is readying his paper to work abroad.

And next year she will be living alone since my cousin is working for me as my son's yaya.

Glancing at the table, my mother wished that she followed my advise then, but I assured her that Kenneth (my son) and I are still there.

To console her, I promised that once my sister and brother definitely leave her alone, I and my son will stay in her huge house with a huge table and that my home near her house will serve as my office where I can go there anytime to do my work.

With that her face glows like she discovered some nice little secrets. Then she said the lonely table will not be lonely after all.