*Sickness happened. The kind that felt like there was some sort of plague. All the kids had high fever and I got quite sick as well. I always had a thermometer within reach, checking every now and then, hoping it would beep at 38C. But it was always at high the first few days. I gave them sponge baths in the middle of the night because the paracetamol wasn’t working.  Imagine having to nurse my youngest almost all day and night, hoping to give him the antibodies he needs, while being sick myself. I had fever that left me so weak I couldn’t rise from bed. Blind leading the blind? In this case, sick healing the sick 🙂  It was a loooong week for Tatay and I. The kids never got *this* sick. But grateful that it was nothing more than a nasty bug. The kids had their blood tests, lungs scanned and skin tested and it all turned out negative.

*Celebration happened. As soon as I got well, I resumed the task of organizing our mom’s 70th birthday. I was in charge of doing the leg work to make things happen. All of my siblings from abroad came home to surprise mom. We planned a 3-day celebration that culminated in an intimate dinner with mom’s close friends and family at a quaint restaurant at Manila Peninsula Hotel. It’s been 15 years since we were all in one place. 15 years since we had a complete family picture. A lot happened within those 15 years. My eldest brother living his 2nd wave of being a dad with a 3-year-old. The second living his vision and unexpected dream. The third, all her 4 kids, fully grown. The fourth, slowly climbing and reaching success. The youngest (me) living *the life* of a Nanay/mom. All of us, all in different circumstances, but all wanting to make our mom proud and happy on her 70th.