Grandma’s Visit

At this point in her life my mother was 46 years old had not been out of the U.S. except a few quick excursions into Tijuana for some souvenir shopping with her sister who lived in San Diego. I flew to Manila to pick her up and brought her to the domestic airport to make our flights to Tacloban. This trip was quite an adventure for her and although she had nightmares most every night, during the day she enjoyed the places we visited around Tacloban City.

The wife of my friend Robert Yao wanted to take my mother out to eat at the Leyte Park Hotel, have us all over for dinner at her home and make my mother feel comfortable. Robert owned the local hardware store, a printing press, an auto repair business and other business ventures. Each month I Robert would cash my U.S. dollars check for a better exchange rate than the local bank, plus at the bank I had to wait a month and Robert cashed my check immediately. He worked his money through foreign exchange rates using a Hong Kong bank.

When I would visit Robert at his hardware store he often had the evening dinner on small nylon rope tied to the leg of his desk; in particular a duck or a goose. Robert also used old Chinese medicinal cures including eating dried pig veins. He was kind to persons of faith and contributed to the Buddhist monks, the catholic priests, and helped me too!

My mother’s visit was around 12 days during which time we took her to our church service, out to dinner at the nicest place in Tacloban and to MacArther Park Hotel to swim with the kids in the swimming pool. When she walked along the beach I teased her and said, “Mom your legs are so white they look like two fluorescent bulbs walking”. My mother purchased us a 19” black and white TV that we enjoyed.