Part 1
They say, first love never dies. When I was young, I used to not believe it. But when I witnessed the love story of my aunt, I came to think, maybe the feeling we have for our first love will never be forgotten by our hearts and minds.
My aunt used to be an introvert. Although the whole family are all going people, she’s indifferent. She prefers to stay in her room and do some stuff that will make her feel better. Our grandma said they have to convince her in all matters just to let her out and learn to at least have a social life but they always fail.
They only succeeded one time, it was when she turned 17. The family was invited to a wedding party of one of the close friends of my grandfather. The venue is in Tagaytay and everyone is requested to go. My aunt insisted on going, but she had no other choice because no one would stay in the house.
She’s silent for sure, she barely speaks, only if she’s asked. When we’re already at the venue, we were all excited, except for her. It’s only about an hour before the party so we rushed to prepare ourselves. We dressed according to the theme, and so my aunt. I was so shocked during those times because it was my first time seeing her dressed like that. She’s beautiful and she looks elegant.
We all proceed to the hall, find our seats and we surely enjoy the party. I did not notice my aunt as I was enjoying myself too but, when we were about to leave, we could not find her.
We asked other guests if they had seen her but no one saw her. We were all worried not until she just popped up out of nowhere and we actually felt more worried because it’s the first time for her to show expressions like that outside our house. Why is she smiling like that? All of us were tempted to ask her as she still had that expression while we were travelling to our hotel but no one dared to ask.
I remember the day after, I was busy doing all my school work and she came to me and asked me to make her a facebook account. I gave her a look as if asking her “what’s the matter with you? What did you eat to ask me for something like this? This is not so you.” But of course, because she barely ask for a favor, I did it.
Days and years have passed and we all noticed that something has changed about her. No one questioned her in the family as we are seeing improvement in her. Although she has never introduced a friend to us, I can say that there might be something or someone who’s changing her. But yes, no one has an idea.
When she went to college, she took fine arts as her course. She loves art for sure, her room is full of sketches and paintings, making it look like an art museum. Her life cycle only revolves in university and paintings but it seems like she has an agenda other than that. And lately, we were not allowed to go into her room.
After graduation, she became more busy. She is always in her room and it’s like she’s only coming out from there once a week or when there are family gatherings. She seems like she’s not employed but she is. She’s doing commissions and that’s where she’s getting money. She just loves drawing and painting and although she doesn’t have a good social life, I can say she still has a colorful life. Maybe through art, she can express everything that is in her mind, it was her first love after all.
One time, I saw her putting a lot of boxes in her room. I was so curious about it and when I asked, she just answered, “I am doing a big project right now.” I tried interrogating her about that project but she is just answering in a way that ’s describing the colors, the shades, lines and everything about art that are beyond my understanding so I just let her do whatever she’s up to.
Because of her business, I rarely saw her having an interaction with her parents. But she gave them a big portrait during their wedding anniversary and that’s enough to make my grandparents so emotional. It may have taken her a lot of time doing that. But during the simple party of my grandparents, we were so very intrigued when they suddenly asked her about having a love life and she just smiled at us and answered, “I am already painting it” and left us. And whenever we ask her such things, because she is brilliant, she always answers in a matter where you need to have a deep understanding about things because she is just so articulate.
After a month of doing her business, she asked her brothers to take out 3 big boxes in her room and said it would be delivered to someone who asked for her artwork. Later that day, she went to her parents and asked their permission to attend an important event that she needed to settle. As she is already an adult and she also needs a career, her parents let her.
We thought that it would only take her a week or 2 weeks there but it has been 2 months since he left here. Well it’s just fine since she’s been updating us regarding her travels, and I don’t know about my grandparents because they seem to not smell anything about it, but her posts on social media have been suspicious as her posts are always someone who is painting, wearing a coat, scarf and hat. I do not know if it was her or what since her comment section is turned off. When I tried to ask her parents about it, they said, “It is someone precious to her more than her artworks. Let us just let her do what she wants and wait until she lets us know who that person is.” I think they are not that too strict to her.
In the following years, I didn’t have any news about her since I also became an adult and started having a job. But one for sure, I know that art would always be her priority. But I was so shocked when the news was sent to me. She encountered an accident. I went home to the Philippines just to see her. She has been in a coma for 5 months now. It was a car accident, it was said that she is with someone in the car but they are not able to see who she’s with because 2 days ago after being transferred here in the hospital, they flew to the US because the person received a fatal injury, and his family decided to do his operation there. Both parties did not even consider investigating the incident as they wanted to focus on the recovery of the casualties.
