Dear Yves

Dear Yves,

Thank you for the lovely postcards! Look at you gallivanting around the world. What an exciting life! As I write this, I sit from across a souvenir store here in Washington D.C. There is a T-shirt with Trump’s face on it and I’m looking directly at his eyes. I try my best not to shake my head of disgust. Tomorrow is his inauguration as President of the United States of America. What have we done, am I right? I still hope the day would come where I can just erase him and his existence from my memory. But for now, I guess I’ll just swallow all this hate. I believe we’ll get through this. We are, after all, a super generation (despite the older people thinking otherwise). I was thinking, I never really cared for who lived inside the White House. Now I realized that because Obama lived there before, someone who I respected and admired, I didn’t really worry because of the safety and peace of mind his leadership gave me. Now that Trump will be living there, I hate the idea of the White House all of a sudden.

I’m going on a road trip with my family to Louisiana in two months. We’re stopping by Tennessee, and who knows, maybe decide to go to Texas while we’re at it. I don’t know why I feel fearful. I just don’t know what to expect from visiting states that aren’t as blue as New York or Maryland. I’m not prepared for racial encounters. I don’t know how to handle stares if we decide to eat at a restaurant full of only Caucasians. I didn’t really worry much about me as an immigrant before. But now I don’t feel as safe as I used to. Anyway, that’s my life.

I’ll try to send you postcards from Louisiana and smear some gravy on it. I can’t wait to taste original Southern chicken and biscuits. Soul food makes the soul good. 😉 Ciao!

Love,
Charmaine

Dear Lola

Dear grandmother dearest, my lola,

Thank you for being my second mom. You took care of me the whole time I was separated from my mom, dad, and brothers. You were the one who proxied for my parents and helped me organize my 18th birthday, which was a big deal. You stepped up and proxied for my parents in my college graduation and it is you that I shared my happy tears with on that special day of achievement. For nineteen years, you have been a constant person in my life and I don’t think I have thanked you enough. I don’t think I have expressed my much gratitude for always supporting me and being concerned of my well-being.

Lola, I love you. Always, you tell me that you are getting really old and weak. That’s why you are marrying me off because you want a grandchild from me. I’m sorry if I can’t give you that soon. Please ask for anything but that. I’m always anxious whenever you tell me that you will die soon. No, I am not prepared. I am not prepared because I still want to spend many Christmases and New Years with you. And I want you to be there when I already have my own family.

I’m really grateful to have a lola like you. Our family has been through a lot. You, mom, and dad got into a lot of fights over the years, but whatever happened you were always the grandma who cooks the best spaghetti to us, your grandkids.

Please keep yourself healthy and strong, so that when the time comes that I have given birth to a kid, he/she can meet an amazing great-grandlola in you.

I love you always,

Charmaine