i have three living sisters. they're all crazier than i am. mwahahahahaha!
this was taken in 1982-ish, with a kodachrome slide film, using the self-timer of my then new minolta slr. i remember we just came back from dinner and we were discussing that we should have a sisters-only photograph. the two younger ones, vivianne and venilda, left, decided to put on make up when they normally wouldn't wear any. vivi, the youngest among the girls, is the prettiest (well, that's what people would say). she has our father's slim build and our mother's hair and facial features. nil, who is two years older than vivi, has our mother's complexion, hair and eyes. vilma is two years younger than myself.
when we were little girls, because vilma and i were of the same size, in fact i think she was a size bigger than me, people thought that we were twins. and i hated it, because at the same time they would say she was very pretty and i was ugly. vilma and i got our looks from our father.
when vilma was about two or three, a movie producer wanted to cast her in a movie starring charito solis, one of the filipino movie icons in the 50's and 60's, because apparently she looked like miss solis when miss solis was still a young girl. our father, however, is, was and will, not an opportunity grabber and he declined the offer.
growing up, i was the ugly daughter. “i can’t believe she’s yours,” people would tell my mother. or, they would ask her, “who is this, this is not your daughter, is it?” yes, i grew up being called ‘it’. we’d be playing with my cousins, from both maternal and paternal side, and i would hear this remark, “look at her, she’s the ugliest of the bunch!”
from an early age, being the ‘oldest' girl in the family (a culture thing, i suppose), i helped in taking care of my younger siblings. when our mother died in 1975, i effectively became their surrogate mother. yes, i bossed them around to the hilt. hehehehe! but i was, and still am, very protective of them. in fact if i have to live my life again, i would like my brothers and sisters to be my siblings again. hmmm….don't tell them i said that.
oh, the boy? that’s my son, bugsy. his mother vilma ran off with some asshole after she gave birth. but nil and her husband adopted him so we could bring him over to canada as the government would not let me adopt him because i was 'single' even though i raised him and he knew me as his mother. hence, the lucky so-and-so in fact has three mothers.
-o0o-
446 words today; i'm chatty, aren't i?
wonderful photo and beautifully told story