No one is really sure how Mom and Dad first met--we only hear interesting stories of my dad noticing my mom as he drove through the town of Vintar, or chance meetings at various locations. He introduced himself at some point, and continued to court her with the help of his younger siblings who unknowingly agreed to be given driving lessons by my dad only to find themselves at my mom's house. My dad was certainly Mr. "Da Moves in those days, and luckily my mom found this endearing. Well, that is all the past now, and this occasion doesn't celebrate how they met, but how they managed to live together in love for the next 40 years.
When my parents got married in January 1968, my dad was 22 and my mom, 24. They had graduated from college a couple of years earlier and Dad worked at SGV while Mom taught elementary kids at Roxas. It seemed they didn't wait long to have their own kids and expand the Aliga name because in that first year, I was born! What a time of joyous celebration! The first grandchild on the Aliga and Ramiro sides.
Two years later, Grace came along, and then Jane joined the crowd in 1972. Yes, that first decade was all about family building and general upheaval. Shortly after Jane’s birth, Dad was offered a transfer to the newly affiliated SGV office in Jakarta. All this was happening while there was all around chaos in Manila, with the imposition of Martial Law. I can imagine how difficult it was for Dad to leave Mom with 3 young kids in Manila for two years while he was in Jakarta setting up shop. Sure, my mom had all the help she needed while working as well, and of course we were three little angels at home. Today, the distances feel so short with text messages and email and Skype, but back then, phone calls were expensive and my parents actually had to write letters or send telegrams to each other.
So it was a joint and wise decision to move the family to Jakarta in 1974. It was an incredible adjustment for my mom but the important thing was to be together. Jakarta in those years was less developed than Manila and we all had to speak another language to understand the maids, go to the market, or meet the neighbors. We learned the language and culture, and but also longed for the comforts of Manila, e.g. showers in the bathroom, a tape recorder, a TV, a car and uncle Mands and auntie Dols to babysit us.
