Coming To Manila, Day 15: Back To New York

So woke up early again to pack, as our flight was in the early afternoon. As promised, Tita Doris dropped by with Rodel, and I felt like I was 12 years old again, saying goodbye to her when we left the country for good.

She had to leave before Rodel brought us to the airport, and she started crying as she said goodbye. I told her to stop it, and save the tears for when she sees Gina again, because one way or another I will try to get her to come visit in 2008.

As we were finishing up packing (me with Tita Dors' help), the doorbell rang and I went to open it, expecting it to be Ate Michelle. I was very pleasantly surprised though when I opened it and I saw Manong Toto.


Manong, as he was scheduled to, had taken an early flight from Iloilo but instead of going home he went straight to our hotel from the airport to say hello. He really didn't have to, and I appreciated it so much and was so glad to see him. I won't lie to you, he scared the bejeezus out of me growing up and Nonoy has his own war stories about that, but looking back, my fear was never warranted. I don't recall him yelling at me ever, and in all those weekends I spent in Fairview, he was like a big brother to me. I mean, Nonoy and I were hyper 10-12 year olds and while we gave him fair reason to be rather annoyed at us, I actually remember having some great conversations with him about sports and life around that time.

And this memory, I will never forget, even though he probably has: I was at Fairview one weekend, and I knocked a bottle down by accident, shattering it. However, a piece of the bottle fell straight down on my thigh, opening a cut. There I was crying, and a bit shocked to see my own blood gushing out, and it was Manong Toto who calmed me down and then cleaned my wound up. It's memories like that, of the little acts of kindness shown to me, which I always remember, to be honest with you.

Soon afterwards, Ate Michelle, Marielle and Andre arrived and then it was finally time to go to the airport. We said our goodbyes at the lobby (and it was at that point I started my campaign to have Manong Toto come visit the States with Ate Michelle in 2008), and then Rodel drove TJC and I to catch our plane.

Long story short, 24 hours later, we were back in New York City and Coming To Manila was officially a memory.