Aunty Belinda had been my favorite person ever since I was a young girl.
When mom got a job opportunity outside the country, Aunty Belinda agreed to raise me as her own.
We ended up bonding so much that I called her mom too. My cousins and I were more like siblings than relatives since we even looked alike. After high school, I got into a great college and then went on to get my master’s degree where my mom was located. I promised her I’d go there since we’d not really spent much time together growing up. Aunty Belinda always called or texted, or video called to talk and let me know how everything was going. Plus, she was my support when things got tough at school. One day, she called me in the evening based on the time difference to vent. Apparently, they were staying without proper air conditioning for some time. There had been a bad storm brewing before she left for work at the hospital. Aunty Belinda specifically instructed my cousins not to turn on the air conditioning until the storm passed. But, they didn’t heed her warning, and the air conditioner shut down when the storm hit. It went as far as damaging the circuit breaker, and they had no electricity. All the electricians and AC experts had other emergency bookings and would only mend the AC system after two days. I saw how angry my aunt was and tried cracking some jokes to try and lighten her mood. It worked, and we went on to talk about getting a more efficient heating and cooling system later on.