All Her Life
“I’ll take care of you.” If there are statements that I would never forget, it would be this one. Ever since I was a child growing up with my grand parents, I have always seen and heard that statement. When I see those writings on the dusted table or mirror, I’d write my name after the last word and let my imagination take off convincing myself that the note was for me. I used to think that Bob, my grandfather, was the one that kept sending those neat notes to Tina, his wife. Sometimes I would be surprised to find it in the last sheet of the toilet paper roll. Of course, I would not use it. I would wait for grandma to find it. Surely, the next day there would be a fresh new roll in the toilet. One day I asked grandma why she kept ignoring Bob’s sweet thoughts. She asked me what sort of sweetness I was referring to, and I mentioned the “I’ll take care of you” statements I have been seeing all over the house. I saw the shock on Tina’s face but she calmly answered and told me it was Danny, her father. Now I was the one was stunned. Tina’s father would be my great grand father and Tina was kinda old. I couldn’t imagine how old my great grandfather would look like based on Tina’s age and looks, although she didn’t look that old and ugly. I honestly think she beautiful despite her age and anyone can see that if they looked closer and deeper through her wrinkles and some freckles on her face. Tina said that Danny has been talking to her in this manner after a year since he died. And when she was in high school she thought she had a secret admirer who always sent her flowers from an unidentified flower shop on the first day of each examination week. She found short notes with the statement “I’ll take care of you” everywhere, in the toilet paper roll, inside her favorite notebook, inside her shoes, everywhere. Tina gave up her hopes on that admirer when she graduated and entered college. I interrupted her and asked if she ever got scared, or if she’s scared now seeing those notes around the house, she looked at me and gave a little laugh. Tina said she hasn’t seen a single note since she married Bob. Tina didn’t ask how I got to mention that “I’ll take care of you” thing so I didn’t bother to tell her. But it still got me thinking and it meant that I was the only one seeing all those notes and traces and stuff of “I’ll take care of you” and no one else knew about it. Unless of course my grandma gave it thought, that I doubt she did. She went on with her story. On her first day of school in college, while she was still at the dormitory, she found Danny standing by the door of her room and he spoke to her. “Just finish college my princess, I’ll take care of you.” It was the first time she saw him again since he died and she instantly knew who kept sending her flowers in high school. But that wasn’t the last of their meeting. Tina said she often saw Danny around campus; he would give out a little smile and then would disappear in the crowd. Sometimes she would see him at the auditorium entrance collecting tickets from the viewers. She would deliberately shift her line just to see and perhaps talk to Danny again but he would disappear and be a different man when she would be the one passing out her ticket to the doorkeeper. She often thought of how handsome Danny was and said to herself she’d marry a guy as sweet and as good looking as her father. All her college life it went on and on, sometimes she’d find these five words in the bathroom mirror which appeared in the mist after she had taken a bath, which doesn’t appear when someone else took a bath before or after her. She would sometimes see notes in the middle of a book she borrowed from the library. Sometimes only the acronym is written down, but just the same she knew who sent it to her. Creepy, but she never complained of it, she said. She never got scared, and Tina said she actually found it sweet and thoughtful that even after death, her father was there to cheer her up, support and make her feel important and truly loved. She had a couple of semesters left of college when she got pregnant. That’s where Bob comes into the picture. They got married right away but Tina wasn’t able to finish college. She said that since grandpa came to her life, the ITCOY’s stopped. No more flowers, no more notes, no more surprises came to her. She said she felt bad because that made her think that no matter how she loved Bob, it never compared to the feeling of elation she felt with those simple notes she received from her dad. It also made her think that she must have married the wrong man, but nonetheless, she continued her marriage with Bob. Tina bore five sons who gave her three grandsons and me. My dad was his second born son and I am the first and only grand daughter she has yet. Tina went to the old cabinet and took out a very small blanket that she said belonged to me. She said I was wrapped in it when I was brought home from the hospital. She said she thought it was a gift from her father, perhaps after all those years he’s back to make her feel again the love she had missed. However, she found out that it was a gift to me, and that Danny, her father, was taking care of me now and that she realized it just now when I had asked about those five words. At the bottom of the blanket was printed ITCOY 100% Cotton. We both knew what it meant and although she searched if the company had existed, she found nothing leading to the initials. Years passed since that enlightening conversation I had with Tina. I finished high school and experienced everything she had described. I received flowers and anonymous notes with the five words. Then I was in college. I met this man who was the sweetest thing I have ever known. Unbelievably, he did everything my grandfather did, flowers, surprises, and notes stating he will take care of me. His name is Vincent Daniel and although his friends and family call him Vince, Vinny or Vincent, I chose to call him Danny – after my great grandfather. Sadly, my grandma died in my last year in college. I never got to introduce my boyfriend, Danny, to her and we were actually going steady for a long time now. My boyfriend went to the wake, came up to the coffin and looked at grandma lying in her coffin, for a very, very long time. When he finally sat beside me he uttered, “Your grandma has always been the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.” I found that a little funny because he just met her, in her wake. Then he said “when she was born I swore that I would make for her the most wonderful, unforgettably beautiful life she has ever had and for as long as she lived I would take care of her.” That was when I realized that this handsome man beside me was my great grandfather. Reincarnated perhaps, or just a part of him was my great grandfather, his soul, his heart, his voice. But for whatever percentage he was who he was, I was not afraid of him and I loved him. “I died when someone else took care of Tina. But when I saw you, I lived again and I never have lived a real life until the day I found you.” And with these, his words, he proposed to me and after a year, we were married. Danny is the best thing that ever happened to me. He protected me as a father would but he loved me as no other husband could ever make me feel loved. I bore a daughter. I named her Trina. Slightly a little different from my grandma’s name and mine but sounds beautifully the same. Again, I heard Danny utter the same words that I believed he said to grandma on the day she was born, that he would take care of her for as long as she lived. I never got jealous because I knew that my daughter, my grand daughter, and her daughter would always be safe, loved, and taken care of by this ghost that has loved my family all his life and his after-life.
