I'm usually not a "cryer." Unlike my mom, who has cried in
pretty much every movie we've ever watched together, I know how to keep it
together. This movie however, hit me hard in the heart. The Help is based
on the best seller of Kathryn Stockett, which I have yet to read, and really,
it was such a wonderful movie. It’s about an author who decides to write a book
detailing the lives of African-American maids working for white households and
the struggles they go through daily.
As a baby I went through 4 yayas. Yaya Mary, yaya Ludy, yaya Susan, and
yaya Myra. The first three yayas I don’t remember much because I was still very
young. Yaya Myra however has been my second mom since I was two. The reason why
this movie got to me is because growing up, I can’t say I always treated her
right. Many times I was a spoiled little daddy’s girl who would throw fits any
time I didn’t get what I wanted. Until this day, there are many times she and I
fight like cats and dogs because we tend to talk over each other and so we never
really get anywhere. A lot of my best friends have seen us together and have
all agreed that my yaya and I have the weirdest love-hate relationship. Don’t
get me wrong. This was not how I was on a daily a basis! I do have a good side
too! It just saddens my heart that I’m not very good at showing her how
grateful I am to have her around.
Focusing on the better side of our love-hate relationship, when I was
younger yaya My would sleep with me in my room when my parents were on tour and
hug me tight when I’d have bad dreams. She would come home every Sunday from
her day-off with Fruitella as her pasalubong
for me. She would read me books when my mom didn’t have the time to do so,
and she would even go swimming with my cousins and me if I begged her hard
enough. Day in and day out, she was the one person whose face would always be
RIGHT THERE. She was around so much to the point that it would annoy me
sometimes and then cause a fight because at the age of five, I thought I needed
my privacy.
Everyone knows yaya Myra. My grade school friends, my high school friends,
and even my college friends know her. My mom made sure yaya would drop me off
and pick me up from school everyday until I went to college. They always tease
me nga kasi every time we’re out, mga 11pm pa lang may text na si yaya, “Kiana san ka now? Pls ack” or “Kiana, panu k uwi?” “alam na ni mama u?” When
I don’t reply, she calls… angry! AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT ANNOYS ME SOMETIMES,
it would be a lie to tell you guys I don’t love it when she texts and calls me.
It’s just a little reminder that she cares. I could go on and on about how our
relationship was and still is, but this post would turn into a book. Today,
yaya My has a hard time walking na.
I’ve never really asked her what’s going on because I’m scared of what she’ll
answer me. It hurts me every time I see her trying to climb from her room on
the first floor to my room on the third because I remember how easily she and I
would dance around the house when I was younger. She assigned our other maid
Clarissa to take care of me now so that she doesn’t really have to leave the
first floor anymore. Yesterday we were
in the kitchen (I tweeted about it!) and she just starts asking me questions
about boys and school. As usual we had our little ‘ilonggo lesson’ but
basically we were just catching up because due to the condition of her knee,
we’re never able to chill and make kwento
na in my room.
The Help, to me was a wake up call. It was a reminder that these women
working in our homes have given up so much to give us the pleasure of living
easier lives. Many of them have left
their children to help raise us, and their parents to help take care of our
parents. Let’s be more considerate about how they feel! They’ve given up so
much for you why not give up a little something for them? I thank God for yaya
Myra. With all honesty I have no idea where my cellphone, my flip, or any of my
clothes would be without her, and I would not be who I am today had she not
taught me everything she did as I was growing up.
 |
| Annoying yaya while she's trying to work pahahaha. Typical. |
