Jun was born with a hematoma, or “bokol,” on his head. He was the heaviest child among our seven children. His birth almost caused Pat’s death because she had very high blood pressure. Then Pat’s milk became very thick and couldn’t be sucked out by our baby. Jun had to be bottle-fed.
He was our only child injected with anti-polio but he developed polio on one of his legs. While crawling, he would just drag this leg. With prayers and patience, I exercised and massaged his leg every day. I improvised a heater by putting bulbs inside a petroleum can, where I placed his exercised leg until it was sweating. He limped while he walked.
In Crame we had a neighbor’s daughter, Baby Cona, he used to play with when he was just 3 years old. They used to go under our bed and kissed each other. And in Baguio he also had a girlfriend, Lulu, daughter of Capt. Jimenez, who also kissed with him at age 5.
He went to school in St. Louis College Primary School, where his sisters were enrolled. One day he was seen gathering brooms from a garbage dump. He sold some and brought some home.
In the PMA he used to ride Australian horses and taught the cadets how to let the horse trot or gallop. He was only around 5 then. He learned how to drive when he could barely reach the gas pedal.
One early morning a PMA guard called up my quarters, telling Pat that my jeep as O.D. was running without a driver. It was showering and foggy and the jeep flaps were down. Jun’s eyes could barely peep through the windshield!
He knew how to cook LECHE FLAN before he went to school, and fix our car when he was 10 years old.
Leave a Reply