Aunty Belinda had been my favorite person ever since I was a young girl, when mom got a job 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 siblings over relatives since we even looked alike. After high university, I got into a fantastic university and then went on to get our 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 consistently called or texted, or video called to talk and let me think how everything was going! Plus, she was my support when things got tough at university, and one afternoon, she called me in the night based on the time difference to vent. Apparently, they were staying without typical air conditioning for some time. There had been a terrible storm brewing before she left for work at the hospital. Aunty Belinda instructed our cousins not to turn on the air conditioning until the storm passed, they didn’t heed her warning, and the air conditioning 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 mornings. I saw how miserable my aunt was and tried cracking some jokes to try to lighten her mood. It worked and we went on to talk about getting a more efficient heating and cooling system later on.