Some History

The purpose of this trip is to take Nanay's ashes back to Balugo, the neighborhood in which she was raised and raised her own children. Here's where she is now:


While in Balugo, we (I) learned a couple things about our family and visited some graves.
Balugo is the neighborhood in the town of Oas in the province of Albay in the region of Bicol.
Nanay Olayon grew up here in Balugo. Tatay Marcelo grew up in the town of Sipocot in the province of Hamacamarines Sur.
Mommy doesn’t know how they met since they are from different provinces. Their marriage was arranged.
Tatay moved to Balugo, since the original land he owned was taken over by squatters while he was in the army for 30 years. When Tatay died, his property was still under litigation to take it back from the squatters.
According to Uncle Totoy, Tatay was in WWII 1941-3. He survived the Bataan Death March. He didn’t attend church but would read the bible daily at 3 a.m. while sipping his gin. He liked gin so much; he’d buy it by the case. When he died, there was a dozen unopened bottles of gin left.
Uncle Totoy bought the land underneath the house from Nanay and built his current house there (unfinished after seven years). There are still coconut and rice fields under Nanay’s name. Uncle Totoy is power of attorney, and Mommy told him he can keep the property for his children.