Happy Birthday Inday Lynette

Today is my baby sister's birthday, November 24th.

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Happy Birthday Inday Lynn! May you have many more birthdays to come. May you grow old and have thick grey hair. May you remain kind, gentle, industrious, persevering, patient and smart as a whip or a pistol or a guava twig. May you preserve your big beautiful eyes so you can see in old age, so you and I can sit side by side and continue that “counting" game we did when we were little girls. Do you remember that game? Short on toys, we invented our own games using our books! We were very competitive. I won most of the time, you cried when you lost so I always got a lot of flack from Mother for making you cry. She said I was not nice, she said I was sutil she said I was lampingasan and you stood there looking at me first smiling, even though I saw through those beautiful eyes of yours that you were later sad and wanted to take my punishment.

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Do you remember the time Mother spanked me, she was exasperated because I was defiant and pulled any item she used for spanking me? She pulled back and I let go and she lost her balance. I was so defiant and I saw fear in your eyes because you knew I was really going to get it and you protested to her and you said "It was my fault" You wanted to take my punishment for me. You always did. Mother ended up mad at both of us so she punished us by making us sit in opposite corners of her bedroom. We sobbed and when we calmed down, she returned because you were screaming! Why did you scream? ...because when no one was looking, I turned around to look at you and pretended I was a ghost or a zombie or Dracula and walked towards you. You were so scared and I giggled. When mother came back I was quietly sitting in the corner. In fact I was kneeling to show her how repentant I was and you had a hard time explaining to her why you were screaming. Oh I was such a tease!

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However, would you agree that when we stepped outside of the house, I was your self appointed protector, your bodyguard, your secret agent and your army? At seven, I was ready to go to jail for you or be sent to the electric chair for protecting you when those bullies Junior, Mayot, Moron, Wambol, Bilat Sarya and Boy Libat, (what kind of names were those!) hurt you? I so enjoyed my revenge! No one was going to hurt you while I was around. I worried about you in school. I was so happy when you found good friends. I was shocked when at fifteen you left home to go to college, in another island! You came back confident and knew what you wanted.

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I was so proud of you when you graduated from U.P. and when you went to medical school. I was so proud of you when you became a doctor. I was so proud of you when you became the chief resident. I was frustrated when you accepted payments of chickens and coconuts from your indigent patients! I was so impressed when you successfully opened a boutique. I was so happy when you fell in love with a handsome, good, kind, intelligent doctor who was a Gemini born on the same year I was. I was devastated and heartbroken when he died. I wanted so much to take your place in your suffering.

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You are an admirable woman. It's ironic, Mother thought I was the strong one, the truth is, you are the stronger one. You are smarter and more gifted. You picked up a guitar and played it by merely listening to the tune. You picked up a thread and needle and instead of doing puny cross stitch projects like I did, you created tapestries! You graduated with a bachelor’s degree and then a M.D. and then a Masters and now a PhD. Me? I just have the double MD degrees (Married degree and Mommy degree). You are the kind and quiet one. You are a terrific mother. You are a wonderful woman.

I love you Inday Lynn. Get ready for our game. Do you know why I draw 100 butterflies, 3000 leaves, 100 rats, 100 people in my drawings? It is because of you! It reminds me of our game. Oh by the way, do you remember when you wrote on my chest with a No.2 Mongol pencil? Ack! It had red ink; my blood dripping from the abraded skin. Oh you finally had it with me with my relentless teasing. You were so angry. You ran than pencil on my chest. That’s when I knew you could take care of yourself.
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Please send a check for $20,000.00 to pay for the removal of my chest scar. Okay, just kidding. Aaaah! I miss you! I love you. Happy Birthday!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!