Lola Bats' day out

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My father's mom, Lola Batangas (Bats, for short), turned 96 last April. Despite the advanced age, she prefers to remain active even if she's being relegated to a wheelchair lately. For instance, she takes tours whenever possible and if she feels up for it, we visit the farm in Batangas.

The opportunity to take the two-hour trip came up when she was deemed healthy enough by one of my aunts, a doctor. Our first stop was lunch at the Lipa Grill, a popular restaurant along the highway to the Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church.


After taking our fill of sinampalukang manok, pinakbet (bagoong on the side), and fruit shakes, it was time to continue with the trip. However, since I was with Lola Bats, I had to take a slower pace than what I'd normally do; after all, this was a leisurely trip with an elder. Lola Bats must not feel rushed and tense.

Several minutes later, we reached her old home; the home I used to spend lots of hours with my grandparents as a toddler and several summer vacations as a school-age child.


It has always amazed me that despite Lola Bats' long stay in Manila, she could get news and information about people in the farm. She's more updated than I am! Her friends dropped by to visit who must be one of the oldest people in the barrio that afternoon. Sadly, though, most of her contemporaries have already moved on. Most of the people Lola Bats looked for had been dead for more than a year.

While Lola Bats enjoyed catching up with her friends, Aling Mary and I went to the public market to buy fresh fruit and vegetables (her special request). It's the first time I'd been to the town's public market ever; though Padre Garcia is known as the cattle capital of the Philippines, I didn't see one cattle auction (probably because my timing was off).


Lola Bats seemed to have enjoyed her trip very much that afternoon; however, the road trip wasn't over yet. We were still going to Alitagtag town, about an hour away. So she had to say good bye to her friends for the time being. Hopefully she'd be healthier next year so we can do this long trip more often.


She's one happy grandma!

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