Chapter 8- My Grand Parents on My Mother’s Side

My grandmother’s name was Aurea Bartolome Carvajal. She had four children, two girls and two boys. My mother, Estrella was the eldest. There was rumors going on of the coming war between the United States and Japan in Asia. The 2nd World War in Europe was about to end.

My mother Estrella cared for me with my grandmother. They cared for me when I was still a baby. My grandmother who was the youngest among her 9 brothers and sisters had a share of land, about 5 hectares, two hectares of low land, suitable for rice farming and 3 hectares upland. The farm sustained our foods during the war and after.

Grandmother with her four children planted rice in the lowland. Corn, bananas, root crops, such as camote, cassava, oraro, gabi, ubi and vegetables were planted on the upland. She also had several mango trees.

In the morning we ate camote, cassava, gabi and vegetables. We always have cocoa drinks in the morning and evening. Grandmother and mother planted cocoa vines near our house. It grew with big vines and bore lots of fruits. Mother planted cocoa July or August every year. She kept the dried beans whole year. She also encouraged her neighbors and relatives to plant cocoa. She gave seeds for them to plant.

When cocoa fruit matured my mother with my 2 uncles harvested them and dried them under the sun. They dried the fruits for several days until quite dried . They get the seeds from the shell and dried them further under the sun. Dried cocoa seeds were preserved the whole year.

My two uncles, Ernesto and Ricardo pounded cocoa seeds with mortar and pestle until grounded fully. They mixed ground cocoa seeds with boiled water and sugar an d served for breakfast and snack.

Cocoa for drinks and boiled bananas were our breakfast in the morning. Some other days, we have cocoa with boiled camote and cassava roots. Our snack in the afternoon were boiled cocoa with sugar and camote or cassava, oraro and ube. Those were very nutritious. I think, this was the reason, why we are healthy even then.

Often, we had fishes with seashells and vegetables for lunch. Almost daily grandmother got sheshells from the seashores. There were plenty of “big living stones” in the shore called “kabatuan”. There small edible shells were plenty, hiding under the stones. Grandmother selected the bigger shells and brought them home. She brought fish sometimes. She mixed the shells with vegetable for lunch. Fish with vegetables were often our supper.

Mother would not allow me to eat cassava during the nights. She told me, that was on instruction of my father when he left and joined the army. Cassava was eaten only during days. Never during the night.

My grandfather, Esperidion Carvajal left my grandmother and his 4 children before I was born. He had practical training on health care and earned income by caring for those who were sick. He went to Negros Occidental and stayed there for many years. He returned to Cawayan, Carles, Iloilo when I was about 6 years old. I first met my grandfather when he arrived the first time after many years of his sojourn in Negros Occidental.

It was about 4:00 pm when my grandfather arrived. He talked to me. I answered him. And soon we're talking to each other. He stayed with my parents. My father and mother took care of him. He could not work anymore. His eyes were growing blind. My grandmother did not live with my grandfather any more.

My parents, uncles and aunts helped take care of my grandfather. They cared for him. when he was completely blind. His children took turns caring for him. They respected him. But think there was little love,

Grandfather died 10 years after he returned home. There was 9- day wake for my grandfather. He died under the care of Untie Aurea Alvaro ’and her husband Eldefonso in their home. All of his children joined his wake. No one among his children cried when he died. Uncle Ricardo said he will get an old woman to cry during my grandfather’s wake.

My grandmother was a woman with a strong and courageous heart. She was soft--spoken but decisive. She guided her children, 2 boys and 2 girls in their lives. She worked providing us our needs. When his sons and daughters got married, she gave them her blessings and gave them share of the land. Each of them had a one hectare farm.

Grandmother live with each of her children every six months. That was her way to help each of her grandchildren to feel her love. He stayed with each of us and all her children and grandchildren every six months. While she lived with his sons and daughters, he took care of her grandchildren, including getting fresh shells in the seashore every morning to help provide the family food.

To have strong and loving relations with her grandchildren, every night after supper, the mats were readied on the bamboo floor in the homes where ever she was staying. She told stories to her grandchildren. Grandmother was a good storyteller.

All of us grandchildren love to hear her nightly stories. She had seven stories. One story every night. These were the same stories, which she told over and over again with some little revisions to make it a bit new and fresh. The same story, told several times the year over by grandmother. We love to hear her telling us stories, at nights until we slept.

Uncle Ernesto was in Iloilo City studying in high school and later in the College of Theology. When he was already pastor of Dumangas Baptist Church, my grandmother visited them in Dumangas during the months of October to December. This was harvest time and grandmother took me with her to Dumangas. She joined other women and men to harvest rice. It was one of our ways to earn money for some of her needs.

At home, we had young coconuts and drunk fresh coconut water. Father and mother knew that fruits were good for our bodies. They made sure we have fruits always at home. They took care of guavas growing around our house. We had 2 duhat trees (lomboy) which provided us with fruits every year.

We have several santol trees with big fruits. We had several coconut trees providing us with young fruits anytime we needed. We had some old coconuts for coconut milk, we often used to mis with for our vegetables.

We took care of wild trees that provide us with fruits like inyam, kaimoto, on-on, and other wild trees that grew around. These wild trees, together with what our parents planted, provided us with fruits needed for the development of our bodies, bones and minds.

During our younger days we seldom got sick. I had never gone to a clinic or hospital when I was young. In college, I got once a stomach problem. I went to Iloilo Mission Hospital for just a day and night of medication and rest.

In 2010, I got a stroke that landed me in a hospital. I got a stroke two times in two years. That was in 2010 and 2012. I accepted a hard kind of works, very heavy and hectic for the heart and mind. It was tedious reaching to different towns and villages where we have churches all over the country. I made a wrong kind of work that caused my stroke..

We lived simple lives in the village of Dayhagan, Pilar, Capiz and Cawayan, Carles, Iloilo when were young. The people of our village were healthy. Very few ever got sick. I never heard of people sick of diabetes, high blood pressures and other diseases like the deadly kidney stones and liver troubles during those times.

Men and women in our village died of old age at their homes. In my primary and elementary school days, I had not seen a physician caring for the sick. I have not seen a hospital until I was in college. I only saw “herbolarios”, men and women who practiced herbal medicine. They care for the sick. They visited people in homes who were sick, gave them medicine from concoctions of plant’s barks, leaves, roots and fruits. The sick get well and soon were working in their farms.

During those times the old people were healthy. They die of old age. My grandmother died when she was 108 years old. And more, there were no women and young girls with false teeth during those times!

Edited….Finalizing editing…,

1Rex Celeste

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Rudy Bernal

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Chapter 7- My Grand Parents on My Father’s Side

My grandparents by father’s side were Simplicio Bernal and “Am” Apolinario. I cannot remember the first name of my grandmother. But I called her “Am”. I was the first who called her “Am”. I was the only grandchild until I was 4 years old. “Am” was short and inverted for “mama” That was how I called her for endearment.

My brothers and sisters followed me in calling our grandmother, “Am”. All my cousins also called my grandmother “… 

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2Myrna Bernal and Wilson D Guanzon

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Rudy Bernal