For this month, as our topic is courtship, we thought it would be a great idea to share some courtship stories of our family members. We have grandparents, nanays and tatays as well as our ate’s and kuya’s
One day in the late ‘50s, as Lola Elly, who at the time was working in Manila was on the night bus on her way back to Tarlac. Lolo Jimmy who was also on the bus, practically a stranger to Lola, offered to take her home (Lolo was portraying a traditional courtship trait of being gentlemanly). Our Lola Elly agreed, and as they arrived at her house, her dad came out with a shotgun and threatened Lolo Jimmy to marry her. And the rest is history, as they have been married for over 60 years, give or take a few years.
In the 1970s, tatay Leo was bestfriends with lolo Emi, nanay’s dad. Lolo Emi would always bring tatay along on their family trips or to help out at the farm. It might be important to know that nanay and tatay were neighbours in Pangasinan. Nanay tells how she didn’t know what to think about tatay, he was just always there with lolo. Eventually, nanay’s younger sister brought them 2 together through love letters, and only when nanay went back to the Philippines did she and tatay begin their courting period. On their outings, tatay would cut the grass where nanay would walk and even climb up coconut trees to get some coconut for her to eat. There’s even a story about how my nanay was supposed to marry someone else but my tatay came in between and she married him instead. They married on a rainy day in 1984.
A couple years ago, our ate Jessica, who was in college when a new boy, Alex just transferred over. Like Nanay, she didn’t know what to think of Alex but they happened to be grouped together for a project. As they were both in the same group, numbers were exchanged and group chats were created, however, kuya Alex would chat to Jessica about work that wasn’t even set yet. Ate Jessica says she thought he was just a bit weird but during the xmas period, college organised a secret santa and kuya got ate Jessica’s best friend. It became obvious that kuya alex like ate as he even went out of his way to buy her a gift. Ate Jessica didn’t even know how it started but she allowed kuya Alex to take her home until one day, uncle noticed and asked who was taking her home. Ate told uncle he was just a friend but really, it was then that kuya told ate his intentions and ate told him that actually uncle and aunty would be strict regarding dating. So, kuya Alex with a bouquet of flowers, went over to ate Jessica’s house and asked aunty and uncle if he could date ate Jessica.
As ate Jessica and Kuya Alex want to stay anonymous, unfortunately we cannot provide any pictures.
This concludes our Courtship theme this month, we hope you guys enjoyed it!
Next month, we’ll be focusing on the “Streets of the Philippines”. Stay tuned on our IG @MalyariTribe for updates!
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