History

When my parents came home from Leyte a few days ago they told me of an uncle who had a queer hobby of collecting old love letters. The love letters are from his grandparents. Not only that, he collects old cans of sardines, soft drinks, stamps, and a picture of Dolphy in his early years.

I've never heard of this uncle before.

Is he old?, I asked, because I pictured in my mind that a person who's interested in this stuff must be old.

No, my mother said, he's middle-aged. He's also a lawyer.

My father said he's a nerd. He was sent to the US before to study history.

So this uncle of mine is fascinated with history. I imagined that he must have a much larger collection of historical artifacts than the ones he showed my parents. And what excites me is that when they told him that I am also interested in historical stuff he lightened up and asked about me, how old I was, etc. Peculiar, he must have thought, for a 25 year old guy to be interested in the past.

I am especially interested in our family's past. Not only with my direct family's, but with our whole clan's. From what I've heard, my grandfather's father was from Aklan. He was said to be a very luoran type of person. If I remember right, he was not given an equal share of the family's wealth. Hence, nagluod siya og ni migrate sa Leyte. And it was in Leyte where he got married, had kids, and built his family. I never knew we were from Aklan, until I look up our family name at FamilySearch.Org. I thought we were originally from Leyte. He never returned again to Aklan. It was as if he completely willed to forget his past.

And so that explains why I'm also very luoran. I sometimes can't help it. It's a very strong emotion for me that it sometimes ruins relationships.

Does this uncle of mine keep records of our family's history, too? He said he was interested to meet me, and will drop by our house when he visits Cebu. I'm very interested to meet this relative, too, and see his collection when I go back to Leyte.