my filipino parents were awesome

the young lady in the middle is my mom, leaning on a loaned jeep, somewhere in cebu, circa the 1960s. :) a while ago, i submitted the photo to the new(ish) website my parents were awesome. but, i don't think they're going to post it, so i'll post it here. :)

anyway, i just saw this photo this morning. in the background is manila international airport. in the foreground is a (i assume, filipino) family, looking like they're boarding a plane on the runway... the dad is laden down with baggage, tickets firmly grasped between his teeth. the mom is calmly carrying a toddler while watching an older child scamper alongside the dad.

the old photos of the awesome parents never fail to amuse and astonish me, but almost always leave me feeling bittersweet. my parents split up shortly after my youngest sister was born. most of my mothers pictures were lost in a house fire. and since most of my life has been spent here in the states, away from my father in manila, i have no photos of him as a young man. the only pictures we have of them, as a couple, are their wedding pictures. my parents rarely talk about their courtship, much less, their turbulent and relatively short marriage.

i love and deeply admire both of my parents. i really think they were, are and will continue to be AWESOME. but i am also glad that they found happiness in their separate lives. we all have the emotional bruises that resulted from their divorce, but i think, i hope, we're all "okay" now.

i hope that the "my parents were awesome" website is still around for my children when they're grown ups. and i hope that they think happily enough of my husband and me to submit pictures of us in our younger, fashionably victimized and possibly inebriated awesome days....