Yesterday, my mom went into surgery for a full hip replacement. Not being there for her before being wheeled into the surgery room made my heart ache. I called a little before midnight, it was almost 6am in Manila. I should be resting already, with all the stress I've been through for the past half year.

The surgery started at 9am, so I've been told. I have a chatroom in my mobile phone where the rest of the family members keep me updated. I rang her, told her everything would be okay, and went back to sleep. At least, I tried to sleep for the first few minutes. Exhaustion kicked in and I woke up to the news that the surgery had gone well and was completed in 2 hours, instead of the 3-hour schedule.

I sighed, relieved. One of my nieces sent me a picture of my mom, the doctors surrounding her and explaining to her what happened during the operation. I figured I should be writing something appropriately astounding and transcending after this experience, but there's really none I could think of.

However, I did realize that it was the first time I've seen my mom with white hair. I've lived at home with my parents all my life before migrating to a different country, and she's already 75. Once or twice, I've seen her grayish and whitish roots and then the next day, her hair would be dark as it was when she was a couple of decades younger.

I guess I can say that attention to detail comes with age, or I could just be missing my parents and my family while I now live with my new one in a different country.

Either way, noticing trivialities like this changes a person and his/her perspective that no one could ever really put into words.



"She's tired of problems that you caused her mind
Tired of all those lies in your freak show."
-"Gloria", Mando Diao