My mum is one of 7 sisters (9 if you count two of her siblings lost in miscarriages). Growing up in our large, extended, matriarchal spirited familes (FAMILY!), each gettogether was unknowingly special. We all felt like we knew what was going on in each others’ lives. Each reunion felt like a Christmas gathering. I have often said that my mum’s sisters, my Aunts, all felt like extensions of my mother. They all cared for me, my sister and our cousins deeply, as if we were their own. I always felt that this was normal. Later on as I had my own family, did I realise that this was not. It was unique and to be cherished.

Of all my aunts, Auntie Eva Garnet Miraflor was the dearest to me. She generated a warmth and joy that always felt gentle but deep. Her soft, bouncy laugh always felt like it came from a place of tenderness and innocence. Of these sisters, my mum may have been center of orbit, but from Auntie Eva did it feel like the source of sunshine.

As a young boy, when we visited her store in Quezon City, it seemed like a bustling hub full of customers and cats. I remember all of this activity swirling with Auntie Eva at the center. Always smiling, always full of energy, attentive to me as she was to all those around her. Later on in life did I realise how many of her extended family members she helped through the store she ran. How many lives and prosperities were (are) owed to her.

When my grandpa suffered a heart attack in the late 80s, it was Auntie Eva who took care of him until his passing. Looking back it should have been no surprise due to her selflessness. She lived out the rest of her days in our ancestral home in Bicol in the shadow of Mount Mayon, running a small store, while the rest of her sisters lived in the big city (Metro Manila) or elsewhere. This is not an indictment, but a mere note of the immense love she had for anyone lucky enough to call her family.

This past Sunday, Auntie Eva passed after two successive heart attacks. Rejoining her late husband Salvador Miraflor. She is survived her only son Ulysses.

Though she only had one son, she had many children who looked up to her in love, amazement and admiration.

Vale Auntie Eva