a few weeks ago, my mom alerted me to the fact that she was struggling with some health issues that were a little concerning. the problems are typically fixable with surgery, but despite the fact that she's always been super healthy, it's not a feasible solution for her. it's not life-threatening, but does require her to have round-the-clock care now in her little apartment that she's been so happy in for over a decade.
this prompted my cousins and me to band together and create a weekly check-in with her using zoom (because pandemic). we extended this out to our parents, and so every sunday we've been virtually meeting up for a family get-together with my gram. my aunt and uncle who live close to her and have been taking her to her doctor's appointments are always there to help her get logged in, and it's been fun to see everyone every week.
we're deviating from our normal sunday zoom and meeting up tonight for this milestone birthday. normally, we would have planned a big bash and celebrated happily with hugs and laughter and tons of food and slideshows and performances galore. i have some pretty fun memories of the other parties we've thrown to mark previous milestone birthdays. i wish i could find the photos from those times, but with everything we own boxed up in the garage it's a little tricky. luckily, i remembered that i have two boxes full of old photos under my nightstand and so here are a few vintage pictures of my beloved nanay.
back in the day when halloween was a favorite family holiday (check out that awesome dot-matrix printed festive banner!):
with my gramps...our tatay.
we surprised her with...something here. i just can't remember what.
she's always been so proud to be a grandma. these are just a few of my cousins.
and this is probably the last time she visited disneyland.
i wish i had more pictures of her with my girls, and i know there are some *somewhere*...but for now this is all i could find.
tonight we'll log on to zoom to show nanay some birthday love, light a candle on a cupcake and sing her the birthday song. it's a little weird and definitely not how we would have wanted to celebrate with her, but we make do with what we can.
happy birthday, nanay! we love you so much!
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