I wish I can talk to you today, Inang.

 Happy Birthday Inang. I wish I can talk to you today. Our conversations will be so different. I wonder. I imagine. Sometimes I even make-believe. 

When I feel like running away, I feel like running away to you. Catch a bus to Pampanga, and stay over the weekend. And lately I've been feeling that a lot, running away. Eat your home cooked meal and be reminded of Mama's. Hear you re-tell a million stories about Tatang and his crazy pursuit over you, and how difficult life became when he died so early. I'd have a different reply today. Watch you so eager to relive that infamous motorbike story and the adventures you've shared with Tatang, without leaving the part when you used to stay over at the military base and feel like a princess around them soldiers.

I'd probably stay longer too. Linger just a little bit longer to see you laugh at our own story one more time, one last time.

Once in a while, I miss you a little more than yesterday. Most times I don't know why. It seems too out of the blue. 

I look at how my life looks right now and I wonder what you would say. It's probably going to be an ear-sore, huh? Nonetheless, there goes your trademark "lectures" peeping its way through my thoughts once in a while. I guess you're never really gone.