Have you heard the saying, "Strike while the iron is hot?" I'm sure you had, and for the most part it is very true. There are opportunities in our lives that we need to take while it is still available. But what if life had been so so blurry? And that the iron was just too cold that you can smell it's metallic rust sniffing in the hot summer air?

Let me tell you about my older cousin Ate Gladys. This article is not really about her at all but about the perseverance of someone who love her dearly. Her Aunt Rebecca her mother's sister.

Her mother, my Aunt Panfila had her out of wedlock. I don't know the exact story but I know Ate Glad had a troubling challenging childhood life. By the way "Ate" is a Filipino word honoring respect towards older sister or a lady older than you. Pronounced as "Ahh - Tea ".

My Ate Glad, had stayed in my Aunt Rebecca, another sister of her and my mother. In her childhood years, she takes Aunt Becca as his own mother. Life was already way too hard for an ordinary poor family. Imagine how hard it was for someone who does not know her own father and who longed for affection from her own mother. That must be very heartbreaking.

Aunt Becca was just a stay at home wife married to a loving but all around odd job hunter as a husband who does not have a steady income. So money was always scarce. They haven't had a child yet and so she takes care of her sister's kids. And Gladys's was one of those kids.

In one occasion Glady had been badly beaten by her own mother and that staying at Aunt Becca will do her no good as her mother would be able to locate her. And so she ran away and stayed to a distant relative to get away from her mother. She was in high school back then. Aunt Becca who is always concern of her nephews and nieces, wanted to give Gladys a good life. But the state of livelihood they have, it would't be possible at all. Little Gladys had never known her father and her mother had no intentions of contacting him. Aunt Becca who knows the name of Gladys's father tried to contact him via snail mail. You know things between the 80's and 90's were very very slow. You send a letter in August and you received it in September. However, it was a challenge for Aunt Becca. She did her very best to contact Gladys's father. Until one day came a reply from him. Gladys's father is a successful businessman in the mega manila city. With that said, it was the very first time he heard that he had a daughter. Without any hesitation, by only asking few verification the father accepted this fate that united them. Life started getting better for my elder cousin since then. His father supported his studies until she graduated college.

You know it's not always, "strike while the iron is hot", sometimes we have to, "strike and make the iron hot." That's what my Aunt Becca did. In her love for her niece, she took the responsibility to unite her with his biological father.

Today my Ate Glad had married her friend, soulmate and loving husband. They both were missionaries and now live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

---

Original Content

@PajeeBear at Cent.co is one and the same @PajeeBear at Publish0x