1st Floor, 1st Unit

Sometime in August of 2004, we started work in the 1st unit downstairs in the rental apartment. This is the same home improvement project that I was working on. It is the continuation of the house renovation but we finished the two-door units on the second floor level first. Then by late December of that year, my late mom was diagnosed with the Big C. So all resources was used to try to take care of her. As the saying goes "When it comes to love, you don't count the cost". Since she was already on the 4th stage of her sickness when she was diagnosed, she still wanted to have an operation because her will to live was very strong. She wanted to show us her children that if the time comes to make a big decision, that we should be courageous to face the problem and not hide or run away from it. She was a strong woman and my family was a matriarchal one. After 6 months of supposed recovery, she passed away. I still miss her very much up to this time, may God rest her soul. I and my siblings were with her all the way up to the very end of her long sickness. Knowing that we did the best we could for her and that we loved her the best we knew how, so there is no regrets. Except that sometimes, if it were only possible to buy a life and bring her back, I would but of course this is just me and my thoughts.

Since it is a practice in my culture to stop all on-going work in the construction of the house when there is a death in the family, so we did just that and did not do anything about it until after the prescribed 1 year of mourning period was over. It took me much longer than that to get over my loss. I didn't have the drive to finish the project anymore. Then in August 2006, we took up where we left off with the work. Then we had another set-back in 2007 and had to stop work in the construction project again. You see, my older brother lost his job at that time. I had to prioritize helping out his family and put the children in school. Then once again, August of 2008, we picked up the pieces from where we left off and started with the construction of the unit. Finally in 2009, we finished the 1st unit downstairs. The 1st unit in the 1st floor or ground floor level has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and living room. It is now presently tenanted by a small family, just a couple and their 2 young children who are still in grade school. These tenants actually had to rent out a next door neighbor's house for three months while waiting for us to finish the unit. Now, they made the unit their new home.