When asked about what makes him a stroke survivor, he would always tell that it is his wife, and the taste of brandy. It was an advise from his cousin doctor that taught him to drink brandy. He was told it was safe to drink. No beers, or whiskey, only brandy.

When made to choose between his wife and a bottle of brandy. It was the latter. It is his fountain of youth. He must have believed it so that he had never had a stroke after five times before he learned drinking brandy.

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The family cannot even afford to buy a school pair of shoes. What he has is an old pair of rubber shoes.

He consoles himself with the fact that he was chosen as candidate for the essay contest in English. It was a grueling half-day, then the announcement of the winners came.

It did not even surprise him that he won first place. Then everybody was congratulating him. One of them asked, “Hey, you won! Why are you not smiling?”

“Because my shoes are smiling.”

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In college, she told us that she had a very unforgettable memory of a loved one.

She had a best friend. He was a guy. This best friend of hers had a girlfriend which later became his wife. She also had a boyfriend that time. She was very close to him and he was very close to her. They call each other honey. They do not call their partners sweet names, only their first names.

One day, she realized she felt different. It was not friendship that she felt but love. It came as a surprise that her best friend also felt that way. He told a friend and that friend told her that if it wasn’t for the fact that they had been best friends for years, he could have tried courting. She resigned from the idea that there would be something for the two of them. She told herself that a lot would get hurt.

Then there was this group buzz session where she and her best friend were invited. After a while with booze, she was woozy. Her friends told her best friend to bring her to the room. She climbed the stairs weakly. Her best friend tagged along.

When they reached the bed, he helped her and laid her on the bed carefully. She was almost unmindful. Then suddenly, he kissed her, slowly at first, then with passion. She let go and kissed back. She was delighting those kisses when suddenly she pushed him as if coming out of a dream.

Her best friend was crying and telling, “I am sorry. I have grown to love you. I cannot handle my feelings for you anymore.”

“This can’t be. This can’t be. A lot of people will get hurt.”

Her best friend braced himself before leaving, “I love you so much that it hurts.” Then he left the room.

After college, her best friend married his girlfriend. Though in anguish, she tried to forget. And then one day, a heart rending news came - her boyfriend got another girl pregnant.

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What she remembers about the place where they live when she was still very young is that the windows of each house had large openings when they slide the two panels designed with capiz squares.

Each morning when she wakes up and opens the windows, she would be greeted with the sight of interiors of each house along this level. They were occupying the second floor of that apartment. They were not really apartments but small cubicles enough to hold the whole of the family.

One day, she saw an activity going on in one of those houses. As a child, she cannot understand what was going on. She saw that hateful neighbor with a big belly holding the breasts of his wife and actually kissing her. She was stunned and decided to close the window again.

Another day, she had just taken a bath and came out of the adjacent room of the house that served as the kitchen and bathroom as well. She forgot that the window panels were open and that they had no curtains. Her eyes went wide to see that maniac standing by the window of their house staring at the inside of their house.

She immediately went back to the adjacent room and called for her sister to bring her her clothes.

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Tatay was a war veteran soldier. In one of those unforgettable fights with the Japanese soldiers they had gone into, he cannot forget a friend who had managed to live after that night. He was with this friend and was busy firing his arms when he saw him holding his own intestines that had burst out of his stomach when he got hit.

Tatay’s friend managed to live years more than what was expected by holding on to his dear life and by holding his insides.

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