I’ll be visiting my parents next week. It will be a 12-hour road trip on a bus ride. The last time I visited home was in 2018 and it was just a quick one when I attended a friend’s wedding.
I rarely visit my parents when I got married. I met my wife in Metro Manila and from then on I wasn’t able to go home on a regular basis.
I had already planned to visit them before 2022 ends a few months ago. Now that travel restrictions have loosened, I would like to pay them a visit. We are likely to move on from the nightmare of the pandemic now. Everything will return to normal eventually. Although the fear of being infected still lingers in the back of our minds.
Many of us who are separated from our parents and have to cope with our own lives find it difficult to visit them as time passes. This is especially true when we are living miles and miles away from them or sometimes we live across oceans. It looks like we never get a chance to see them. In most unfortunate cases we will have to see them when they are already ill or no longer breathing.
My parents are both more than 70 years old and I am thankful that they survived the pandemic. It was the most tragic thing that happened to us in the last two years. I think the most frustrating part of it was when people would report their neighbor as COVID-positive even if it was not. And for the most part, they were reporting their own brother or sister. I think it’s kind of unacceptable if it happens to you, as it did to my parents.
I was planning to go home alone and file a vacation leave and spend at least three days with them. Due to a shortened budget, I will travel with my wife only instead of my kids.
The main reason why I would visit my parents is that I am a bit worried about them, especially their health. The reason I wanted to see them was to see whether they both looked healthy physically. In spite of my heavy workload in the office, I think I still have time to visit them. Actually, my leave credits have not been used for the entire year and this is the first time I have filed a leave of absence. My colleagues laughed when I told them that I would be on leave.
If the distance isn’t that long, we should visit our parents and loved ones at least once a year. It’s kind of tragic when some people race against death just to be able to see their loved ones for the last time. This is really heartbreaking especially if you don’t have the funds to travel. You will end up begging for cash donations and dropping everything because you need to travel for an emergency.
But why rush home when your loved ones have already passed away? There is no point in hurrying home. They can no longer see you, talk to you or hug you.
We don’t have to have excuses to pay a visit to our parents or loved ones. You don’t want to wait until you have no control, no choice, and nothing left to say. You don’t need to wait for another Christmas or holiday just to see them.
