I called my Mom in the Philippines today to greet her Happy Mother's Day a day early because I anticipate the lines are going to be busy the next day. And no, it was not a collect call. We talked for almost an hour about how she was, what was going on at her part of the world, and what her plans for Mother's Day was. We also talked about the upcoming Notre Dame reunion because she was a product of the same elementary and high school as I was. I finally got the chance to ask her how our family came to live in Jolo. On her side of the family, she said my grandpa who was originally from Pangasinan was in the Philippine Constabulary and was assigned to Jolo. My grandma was originally from Pasig but my mom doesn't know how grandpa and grandma met, but they met before they moved to Jolo. My mom and a couple of my uncles and aunts were born there. Incidentally, did you know that there is a community called Jolo (pronounced Joe Low) in West Virginia? Anyway, back to my story. On my father's side, my grandpa was an agriculturist who was assigned by the government to Jolo, although he and my grandma met in Zamboanga where my father was born. So now I know my roots up to the grandparents level. How interesting that I never queried about those things while growing up until now.
How about your roots, can you tell me about them? Click on Comments below and leave me a message :)
3 comments:
Interesting post and thank you for asking about roots. I am also very interested in these things, and I also live a ways from my parents, so rarely get to hear their stories, so I really enjoy their stories when they do tell them.
Okay, I might run out of space but here are some of my roots:
I was born in Hong Kong and then grew up in Canada. My parents met in Hong Kong, got married and had me and my brother. Later we moved to Canada when we were kids and my parents had 2 more kids, my sisters.
My parents met in Hong Kong because both were in families that left China. They were like post-WWII babies so in the 50s, when they were kids, there was a change in China referring to the politics, and their families felt it would be best to move to the British Colony of Hong Kong. They went to high school there and met.
My grandparents before that were from two different regions in China. One grandfather was a businessman/industrialist type, and the other was in military general type. I think both could not pass the same standard of living on to their children as the politics of their country were changing so rapidly at the time.
What an interesting story about your roots. Imagine if your grandparents stayed in China and your parents met there, how China's one child policy would have affected you (maybe that came much later). Look at you and Johan, he lived in Canada too, right? And you met in Long Beach. A good roots story for the future.
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