We are eight in the family, my father, my mother, me, my sister and my four younger brothers. Indeed, we are a big family.
I am the eldest among six siblings and it is obligatory to be in charged or to be responsible of the younger siblings when the parents are not around. We only have two or more years gap with each other and most people call us being in do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do as our height is increasing from youngest to eldest.
Our family was considered as one of the most indigent family that time where my parents don't have regular work. They only depend on farming on a space they didn't legally owned. We call it creek because my father planted crops and fruit trees beside a creek.
The crops and fruits harvested from this so called farm in the creek is their source of income. My father and I will go to the city on Sunday morning to sell our harvested crops and my father will buy fish and we will sell it on our Barangay. When I went home at noon time from school, I will then accompany my father selling the fish. We will rush going home so I could attend school again in the afternoon.
If my parents will be in the creek, I was left to take care all of my younger siblings. There is a time that earthquake happens while they are not around and I felt so scared trying to calm and comfort my younger siblings.
There were times that I am crying with them because I don't know how to stop them from crying. I even experienced trying to breastfeed my brother hoping he will stop crying. Yes, he stopped from crying for just a while and cry more when he discovered that I don't have breastmilk. He might so hungry that time and looking for a breastmilk and my mother is not yet home.
We could eat limited food, limited rice, limited viand and even limited milk because we are so many. I still remember my mother putting some rice and vegetables or fish on our plate according to our age. No more, no less. Even we wanted to eat more, but there is nothing to add on.
Each of us wants to drink one glass of milk but because we have a limited budget, two or three of us will divide the milk on a glass. My mother will just said, it's just enough to have something hot in your stomach.
I experienced a lot of times that I go to school with only rice for my lunch. I will only buy soy sauce, banana or bandi (a sweetened peanuts) to be partnered with my rice.
I have a limited time to play compared with other children on my age because after school we will go to the creek and accompany my father there and we will go home by sunset bringing some fruits, crops or firewood.
I can feel how hard life is. I wish I have lesser siblings so we won't suffer that much.
I was 12 years old when I learned that my mother is pregnant again with my fifth sibling. I cried, asking why they keep on having a baby? even we are so poor.
I am graduating in elementary that time and the next year I will be first year high school or grade seven. I left home and be a working student to my aunt (my mother's sister) to give way for my younger siblings to go to school. There I suffered physically and above all emotionally that I went back home after one year.
As we grow, we always tell stories, we always recall memories everytime we were together and we will laugh at it. One time we even reached to the point remembering the moment that we no longer wants a sibling. Then, we ask, what if you were not born? pointing to our youngest. We then imagine our life without him, and we are all emotional because we don't want to go back to the time, that we don't want him. We want him and our family is incomplete without him.
Now that we are all grown up, we realized how blessed we are having a lot of siblings. We have each other in the sunny, cloudy, windy and rainy days of life. We have someone to hug, we have someone to cry on, we have someone to talk to, we have someone to lean on and we have someone to share our happiness too.
Our family has a humble father, a supportive mother, an emotionally weak eldest, a sweet second daughter, a breed winner third child, a loving fourth child, a thoughtful fifth child and the funny, sweet youngest. We are eight in the family, we are a big yet happy family.
Life might be so difficult at the beginning, but if everyone loves and support each other having God in the family, life will become easier.
The photo is mine. This is my participation in the hive learners weekly featured contents, Siblings.
Thank you so much for spending your time reading this blog. Keep safe.