My Maternal Grandparents...And Their Family

One disadvantage of being one of the youngest offspring of one of the youngest children of your grandparents is that there is a greater possibility that by the time you are born, your grandparents are already too old for you to enjoy them... or worse, they have passed away. This is what happened to me... and certainly, to Mabelle, my kid sister! Nevertheless, i believe it is very important to still know some things about them... not only to honor them but also because after all, they played a very big role in my present existence.

My mother's father was for a long time the Cabeza del Barrio of their sleepy fishing village in the historic province of Bataan. His name was Lucio Sanchez A. I have no memories of my Lolo since he died of a heart attack in 1958 when i was barely two years old. The only image, and the only photo i know exists, of him is his picture still hanging by the hallway of their home in Caloocan City, where my aunt lives. This black & white photo shows a portrait of a very dignified middle-aged man in coat and tie. In that photograph, he had such piercing eyes that seems to gaze at you wherever you go. As little children, my cousins and i were afraid of that portrait such that whenever we were noisy and misbehaving, my aunt would tell us that our Lolo is looking straight at us and is not happy with what we are doing. That would immediately make us calm down and behave the rest of the day! During the times when my mom and my dad would leave my brothers and i to the care of my aunt, i'd be so frightened to go to the bathroom alone passing through the darkened hallway where his picture hangs and sometimes i'd even dream about his steely gaze. As i grew up, i felt the need to know more about my Lolo... and i'd ask my mom over and over again if he ever knew me before he died. My mom would say that he did know me and would even play with me sometimes ...i'd feel real good after i heard that from my mom!

My Lolo Lucio was married to my mother's mom, Dorotea Santos H., my Lola. Together they had 11 offsprings... five of which were stillborn. The surviving six children were Corazon, Jesus, Ismael, Milagros, Segunda, and my mom Lydia.

My aunt, Tita Corazon, had three children, my three first cousins, Rosita, Lina, and Florante. Tita Corazon passed away at a young age and i don't have any memories of her.

My uncle, Tito Jesus, had a single child, Mely, who is now a practicing physician in Texas, USA. Tito Jesus was an officer in the military and fought during the war. He survived the Bataan Death March, only to be killed in action by the Huks (members of HUKBALAHAP movement) during the late 50's... needless to say, i don't have any memories of him too.

Tito Esming (Ismael) left the country and joined the US Navy after my mom got married. He was closest to my mom and had great plans for her...support her college education, then bring her to the US. But when mom got secretly married to my dad, and he found out about it, he suddenly left and had no contacts with my mom's family until the death of my Lolo. When Tito Esming was assigned in England, he married an Englishwoman, Tita Sheila, and together they had two girls, Carole and Debra.

Aunt Milagros or Kakang Migring, as we fondly called her, had nine children - Mario, Teresita, Beth, Nette, Enrique, Hermito, Wilberto, Leoncio, and Gigi. I have many, many fond memories of Kakang Migring because it was with her care that my brothers and i were left by my mom & dad every summer vacation ( 2 months of every year!) when we were in grade school. Mom & dad would enroll us in school and fetch us from the province in time for school. Sadly, Kakang Migring passed away a few years back.

Aunt Segunda, or Ima Unday have 7 children, named alphabetically, Arturo, Bemelda, Christina, Dolores, Eloisa, Ferdinand, and Gliena. Of the seven, five now live in the US with their respective families. Ima Unday actually had a twin sister who was born ahead of her (but she dies shortly after birth)... that's why she was named Segunda ( or Spanish for "second"). She inherited and still lives at their ancestral home in Caloocan City. She doesn't care much living in the US, in fact she has an expired green card!

My grandmother, Lola Dorotea passed away when my mom was only a teen-ager in 1945. Lolo Lucio remarried two years later... to my mom's stepmother, Lucia Vasquez or Impong Lucia. Together, Lolo Lucio and Impong Lucia had a son, my step-uncle, Napoleon ...who now lives with his wife, Maria, and three children in Canada.

There, that's my mom's entire family. In the future, i may be talking about my uncles, my aunts, and my cousins as they impact my life.