Huwebes, Setyembre 2, 2021
I continue my blogging about my memories with sketches ... and also old photos. Copyright 2021 by Cecilia BrainardTALISAYCecilia Brainard
My father had been an engineering professor at the University of the Philippines in Manila. He and my mother lived in a big house on Georgia Street, in the Malate District. There they had their first two children -- my oldest sister and brother. When World War II broke out, my father entrusted the Manila house to his nephew Nanding. He brought his family by boat to Mindanao, and there he worked for the guerrilla movement — I have fictionalized some of their war stories into my first novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (aka Song of Yvonne).
There they stayed for four years. My other sister was born “behind some bushes” while a Japanese patrol walked by. My mother lost a baby boy there, a miscarriage. My father would disappear for days without my mother knowing where he went, only to discover later on that he had traveled with the Americans to Australia or some other place.