Emilia Compound

Abodes 

Some years after I'd left for the states, Mum and Dadee started developing contiguous apartments for the siblings and their respective families.

From the colorized sketch on the left, you'd see that it consisted of a narrow build comprised, from top by: (1) new apartment for Second Brother (in yellow); (2) new apartment for Fifth Brother (in blue); (3) our original home, renovated for Fourth Brother (in gray); and (4) a new house in front for the parents and Third Brother (in blue). 

First and Sixth Brothers live in their respective homes a few miles away.

It has been a sanctuary that is a living heartbeat.

Mum and Dadee's dream. 

An extension of the souls that live in them.

Above: Dadee's sketch of completed plan. Manila, 1989. Below: frontage of new parental home

We have fondly called it the Emilia Compound.

Visiting for the first time after nine years of being away, I felt a breath-song, like a warming pulse, at the center of the adjacent homes.

Looking at the original structure where I grew up in, a montage of memories billowed around me - the open porch with the hanging orchids and yellow bell vine trailing the stairs and the rattan swing underneath, the capiz windows, the batong buhay blocks that led up to the home, and its creaky wood floor. 

But now, all gone. Modernized.

The strange thing was that after all those years of longing to get out, once I was allowed to do what I liked, I always wanted to go back.

Top: Parents with Fifth and Fourth Brother's firstborn.

Note red gate at end of property incsribed with "DORIS," 1982

Bottom: Second Brother and parents, main house entry, 1980

 

To the same old neighborhood.

The same old trees at the same time of year. 

The same comfort of things staying the way they were.

And when I did, I always regressed. Maybe I needed to be that child, at least sometimes.

I needed to remember the important things, the things that made me who I am today.

It is suddenly a place I very much want to be.

Where I can feel safe and family was there. 

My home.

The compound front gate repainted by Second Brother, February 2021