By Pennie Azarcon dela Cruz, Executive Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

LIKE death and taxes, aging is inevitable — and terrifying. Think mortality, weakened knees, dementia, disease, being ignored and suddenly invisible.

In these isles where respect for elders is the norm and you’re not there yet, things can get really annoying.

(Photo: Author [right] and friend O find eternal youth in sharing laughter)

Overnight it seems, everyone on the street has become solicitous, reaching out a hand to assist you board the LRT, giving up their seats quicker than you can grasp the handrail, properly deferential with their “po” and “opo,” and, in this clan-conscious culture, suddenly filial, addressing you with the requisite “Nay” and “’Mi,” (short for Mommy), that you’ve always thought went with a full head of silver, a walker and a 45-degree stoop.

“Nay, ano’ng oras na po?” the burly kargador-looking man asks, seeing through the Mohawk hairstyle, the dangling earrings and the denims you’re wearing. “ ’Mi, dito po tayo,” the medical technician says, ever so gently, like he can see osteoporosis in your future even before he slips the negatives in the x-ray machine.
[Read the rest of this entry »]