Destiny spoken – Truth Revealed
I think most people my age have a similar
conception about their grandfathers. Distant, silent and mysterious. Yet in my mum’s family – consisting of 7
brothers and 7 sisters - he was revered, respected and feared. To me he was all
that plus more. He had spoken about my
destiny.
My grandfather was in the army but then
later settled to be a coffee farmer high up in the mountains of Quezon
province. I was about 3 or 4 years old when I had first memory of him. My
mother had taken us – my elder sister and my older brother - to his farm.
Early in the morning just after the first rooster
crows, I would sense people moving about, seemingly going about their daily
early morning task. I would sleep and later wake up to the aroma of burning
firewood and roasted coffee mixing with the cool air sweetened by the nocturnal
left over scent of the coffee flowers. It was breakfast time – when all adults were
required to sit at the long table and share coffee. As a child, I watched my
grandfather drink his coffee and later on disappear into the dark, past the
thick foliage and into the farm. With the early morning sound of crickets and
frogs and in the absence of the early morning sun, I sink back into oblivion.
I think it was late in the afternoon when my
grandfather returned from tilling the land. This time, I assume he had rested. He
had seemingly shifted his attention from to the
coffee shrubs to me. He nodded and acknowledged me.
