My mother and father finished college, and they both landed decent jobs.  Nothing fabulous, but it’s a stable source of income that helps pay the bills.  I think my mother started out as a secretary somewhere but because of conflicts with colleagues, she went AWOL and got herself a job in a law firm as a paralegal. 

Because she was smart enough, one of her lawyer bosses asked her if she wanted to become a lawyer, even agreeing to shoulder the schooling fees.  My mother declined, because she was sort of the breadwinner in the family at the time; she couldn’t balk out on her family like that.  So after a few years she quit her job in the law firm and set out for a new company.

Luckily, she landed a job in one of the biggest insurance companies worldwide.  I think she started out in a secretarial job in one of the departments.  As her mother’s illness grew worse, they (the whole family) decided that it would be for the best to pawn off the title deed of their house.  It wasn’t a large property by any means, just 600 square meters, but it was still worth a bit since it was in a commercial area.  They used the money to help with the increasing hospital bills.  My father helped, I think, by pitching in a bit for the household costs but it was almost never enough.  My mother even had to sell homemade sandwiches in the office just so she could make ends meet.  It’s one event in her life that’s affected her deeply, I know, because this is one that she’s always willing to recount on the dinner table. 

Little by little she eventually paid off their debt and got the title deed of their land back.  Her mother, who was on the eves of death, had partitioned the land in such a way that my mother had half the property to herself while her two younger sisters shared the other half.  My father theorizes that it’s because it was mostly due to my mother’s hard work that the deed was re-bought, but my mother’s mother never really gave out a reason.

Things were going smoothly for a time; my mother was slowly climbing up the steps of the corporate ladder and her sisters were faring well.  They weren’t rich by any means, but at least they had lands to their names.  My mother kept the deeds to the property, as her mother had passed them directly to her.

But then one day, out of nowhere, our nosy neighbor asked her where the deeds were kept.  My mother was insulted, as she thought this question was out of line.  She answered it squarely, stating that the deeds were with her.  Apparently this nosy neighbor had been spreading rumors about my family.  He’s told everybody in the neighborhood that my father forced my mom to pawn off the deeds again so he could buy a car and have a house built. 

Being the forgiving person that she is, my mother shook this offense off, opting to take the high road.  “Why should I explain myself to anyone?” she said.  But unknown to her this same nosy neighbor had caught the ear of my uncle (the husband of my mother’s youngest sister) and played the devil’s advocate, saying how incredibly unfair it was that my mother was holding onto something that wasn’t hers and just think of how much money that piece of land would be worth. 

I don’t know how much coercion my aunt had to endure but it didn’t take long before she went up to my mom and asked for her share of the deed.  My mother, naturally, asked what would she need it for? 

-To Be Continued Tomorrow-